"Have no Fear?" Asteroid 1998 Feeling Very Real & 2013 Right Now

• When: May 31st, 2013
• Where: Denton, Garland. San Antonio, & College Station
• What: Fragments or "casualties" of asteroid flyby?

Yesterday evening, a really gigantic asteroid got a little too close for comfort, if you ask me. Not to worry, NASA says, because it's too far away to harm us. However, on that same token they say they are ramping up efforts to detect threats like these in advance and prevent them from damaging the planet. Hey Obama, can we get NASA more funding!?

Meanwhile... on the very same evening Texans spotted some pretty spectacular meteors, so certainly the asteroid has - at the very least - flung some stuff our way... and are likely, if not certainly agitating our current wave of storms. Check out these riveting descriptions, reported into the wonderful resource AMSMeteors.org:

---

A bright streak, going up and to the right, that quickly faded, no smoke, just a very bright streak.. I would like to know if anyone else saw, recorded or reported this phenomenon, it seemed odd that it appeared to be going up, but I'm guessing it was an optical illusion due to its trajectory as it entered the atmosphere. -  Adam H. in College Station

Looked like a burning blue flame in the sky and left a short trail. Awesome. -Jacob D. in Garland

I have seen falling stars in the past, but this was the brightest and longest I have ever seen. - Janet O in San Antonio

This video surfaced a few hours ago of what appears to be Asteroid 1998 QE2 in action:

Here are a few interesting quotes from the USA Today article:

Astronomers plan to study asteroid set to pass Earth to avert future catastrophes.
...
About 1.7 miles in diameter — or, nine times longer than a cruise ship — Asteroid 1998 QE2 will make its closest approach to Earth at 4:59 p.m. Friday

"This is one of the big ones," said Paul Chodas, a scientist with NASA's Near-Earth Orbit Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. "It's certainly one to keep an eye on."
...
Asteroid 1998 QE2 was one of the first to be identified and tracked, and now it is on a course that will pass within 3.6 million miles of Earth on Friday.

Have no fear. That's 15 times the distance between the Earth and the moon.
...
Bolden noted that NASA's proposed 2014 budget includes start-up funds for a mission to identify, track, and send a robot spacecraft to capture a small asteroid and tow it to a stable lunar orbit.
,,.
"Asteroids are a very high priority at NASA for a number of different reasons," said NASA's Gay Yee Hill. "To protect the planet…to understand how the solar system formed…and to explore."