Two small asteroids reportedly passed by Earth on Tuesday, September 8, 2010. According to NASA scientists, both asteroids came fairly close to Earth, within the Moon's orbit, but not close enough to pose any serious threat.http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/07/two-asteroids-to-pass-close-to-earth-on-wednesday/

Scientists say the two asteroids passed by Earth nearly 12 hours apart. The first asteroid, which measured between 32 and 65 feet in diameter, passed within 154,000 miles of Earth at 5:51 a.m. EST. The second small asteroid, measuring between 20 and 46 feet in diameter, came within about 49,000 miles of Earth at 5:12 p.m. EST. These asteroids were said to be traveling in entirely different orbits. The first asteroid was closest to the northern Pacific and the second was closest to Antarctica. Scientists say neither asteroid came close enough to be seen with the naked eye.http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/08/asteroid-narrowly-misses-earth/ http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/07/two-asteroids-to-pass-close-to-earth-on-wednesday/

In an interview with CNN, David Yeomans, the manager of NASA's "Near Earth Program," said his job, and the job of his colleagues, is to track potentially hazardous asteroids and comets that come close to Earth. He defines close as "within 28 million miles." Yeomans said he considers the "close calls" of September 8, 2010, a "warning shot." He says scientists should step up their studies of so-called "near-Earth objects," or NEOs. Yeomans told CNN there is a real need to locate and keep track of these NEOs, adding "I think this is Mother Nature's way of firing a shot over the bow and warning Earth-based astronomers that we have a lot of work to do."http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/07/two-asteroids-to-pass-close-to-earth-on-wednesday/ http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/07/two-asteroids-to-pass-close-to-earth-on-wednesday/

Not one, but two small asteroids came whizzing by Earth on Wednesday, September 8, 2010.

Scientists at NASA say asteroids and other small objects frequently pass by the Earth on a regular basis. Lindley Johnson, who heads up NASA's "Near Earth" Program, told Discovery News that "Objects this small pass by Earth pretty frequently," adding that even if the asteroids were to hit Earth, they'd likely break apart in our atmosphere and "They wouldn't do any damage."http://news.discovery.com/space/asteroids-earth-moon-distance.html

Of the objects that do pass near the Earth, about one-fifth of them are big enough in size to cause concern. According to Discovery News, "about 20 percent of the known near-Earth objects are considered potentially hazardous" because they are large and because their orbits take them "within 4.6 million miles of the planet."http://news.discovery.com/space/asteroids-earth-moon-distance.html