NASA reacts to meteorite hitting Russia

HAMPTON, Va. (WAVY) - First a meteorite explodes over Russia, then an asteroid zips past earth at the closest range ever.

Dan Mazanek, the near-earth object technical lead at NASA Langley, said no one knew about the meteorite before the fire ball hurled to earth, because it was so dark in space.

"Think toner cartridge, toner for your printer or copier, that's how dark some of these objects can be," Mazanek said.

Photos: Meteor explodes over Russia

Mazanek said that is why seeing Asteroid 2012 DA-14 Friday was such a big deal for scientists. 

"The idea is once these objects come close to the earth and we can characterize them know their orbits then we can predict many many years into the future with a good deal of certainty whether or not they are going to impact the earth," Mazanek said.

If this asteroid is determined to be a threat, they can actually alter its orbit to prevent a strike.  

However, there are probably 300,000 more asteroids the size of this one and Mazanek said scientists only know about one percent of them.  

Mazanek said what happened in Russia Friday could happen at any time.

"It happens so infrequently the question is how much insurance do you want to buy?" Mazanek said.

As for the timing of these two cosmic events, scientists say there is no connection because these space rocks were traveling in opposite paths.