A 200-foot asteroid that just missed Earth last week wasn't detected until two days later

Exactly, SGT (Join to see) It was small, however on the right trajectory, and did not burn up in the atmosphere - and do a number like that one in Russia - then it could do some damage wherever it would have landed. 1/4 the Moon's distance to the earth interests me. That is awfully close.

¼ the lunar distance is too close for comfort! When considering that it took about three days or 72 hours for the Apollo 11 astronauts to begin orbiting the moon, that means this asteroid was only about 18 hours away! That’s like a road trip from New York or New Jersey to Walt Disney World! I mean the Apollo 11 astronauts are going exponentially faster than a family minivan, but space is vast and that only makes it seem even closer!

PO3 Jay Rose - Thing is we know it's orbit. It isn't like it all of a sudden appeared. It's the angle, mass , velocity and makeup that are deciding factors on the amount of damage that can be done. A nickel/iron astroid most likely will impact the Earth vs one held loosely together by its own gravity

Hopefully! PO1 William "Chip" Nagel The Shoemakers started working on that way back before the 1990s. It started out as a voluntary network, which is how their team spotted the comet that impacted Jupiter. If I recall correctly there was some small government department within a department within a department that did receive a small amount of funding, maybe 15 years later. Don't know if it still exists.