I wonder, though, if we should should be fretting more about meteoritess and asteroids, following the recent incident of a meteor smashing into a Siberian town. Scientists certainly are worried:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/science/space/dismissed-as-doomsayers-advocates-for-meteor-detection-feel-vindicated.html?_r=0
TODAYOnline (Feb 23) also has this interesting story headlined "How to stop space objects hitting Earth, Russia ponders":
What can man do to prevent Earth being hit by meteorites and asteroids? Russia has found, to its cost, that it has no answers. But United States and European experts may be able to help with a few ideas that at first glance seem straight out of science fiction, including smashing spacecraft into asteroids, using the sun’s rays to vaporise them, or blasting them with nuclear bombs.
http://www.todayonline.com/daily-focus/science/how-stop-space-objects-hitting-earth-russia-ponders
At least, now we know that if a meteoroid or an asteroid were to come too close, it's labelled a "near earth object" -- NEO. And rocks "the size of basketballs come in every day" (see below). The difference between meteoroids and asteroids is also explained...
Meanwhile, Earth was lucky to have recently escaped being hit by Asteroid DA14...
Finally, all that stuff about knowing what are asteroids and meteoroids reminds me of school geography lessons on how to tell stalactites from stalagmites (technical term: they are both speleothem). Easy-peasy, the teacher said.
StalaCtites -- these are found on the Ceiling of the limestone cave.
StalaGmites -- likewise, the G helps us remember that these are found on the ground.
Do the schools still use this memory aid?
I like Get Fuzzy's way of using it to conjure up dust mites and dust tites!...
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