People have a hard time comprehending the size of things we don't encounter in everyday life. These days someone is more likely to compare the size of something to an iPad than to a breadbox, but we still can't often grasp the magnitude of the distance from the Earth to the Sun or the radius of a hydrogen atom. It often helps to put things into a scale that we can better understand. For example, the asteroid 2012 DA14 will...

BERLIN -- A meteor exploded in the sky above Russia on Friday, causing a shockwave that blew out windows injuring hundreds of people and sending fragments falling to the ground in the Ural Mountains. Here's a look at those objects in the sky: What's the difference between a meteor and a meteorite? Meteors are pieces of space rock, usually from larger comets or asteroids, which enter the Earth's atmosphere. Many are burned up by the heat of the atmosphere, but...

This image provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech shows a simulation of asteroid 2012 DA14 approaching from the south as it passes through the Earth-moon system on Friday, Feb. 15, 2013. (AP Photo/NASA/JPL-Caltech) CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The world is safe - at least from one asteroid. A 150-foot cosmic rock hurtled safely past Earth on Friday. Note: Tune into The Channel Channel tonight at 9pm for an encore of Deadliest Space Weather - Meteors. (MORE: Hundreds Hurt after Meteor Hits Earth) It...

Note: As NASA predicted, the '2012 DA14' asteroid buzzed by earth Friday, narrowly missing the planet. But in the spirit of curiosity, SPACE.com's Marian Kramer uncovers what would have happened if DA14 had taken a more perilous path. There is absolutely no chance that asteroid 2012 DA14 will hit Earth when it makes its closest approach on Friday, Feb. 15, but many other asteroids like it have made a crash landing on the planet in the past. Although the 150-foot...

Highway from Kazakhstan to Chelyabinsk, Russia A dashboard camera, on a highway from Kostanai, Kazakhstan, to Chelyabinsk region, Russia on Friday, Feb. 15, 2013 shows a meteorite contrail. A meteor streaked across the sky of Russia’s Ural Mountains, causing sharp explosions and injuring dozens of people. (AP Photo/Nasha Gazeta, www.ng.kz) On Friday, Feb. 15, 2013, a meteor streaked across the Russian sky and crashed into the ground. Hundreds were injured, mostly by broken glass, according to reports. Police dash cameras...

Highway from Kazakhstan to Chelyabinsk, Russia A dashboard camera, on a highway from Kostanai, Kazakhstan, to Chelyabinsk region, Russia on Friday, Feb. 15, 2013 shows a meteorite contrail. A meteor streaked across the sky of Russia’s Ural Mountains, causing sharp explosions and injuring dozens of people. (AP Photo/Nasha Gazeta, www.ng.kz) CHELYABINSK, Russia -- As a small army of people worked to replace acres of windows shattered by the enormous explosion from a meteor, many joked on Saturday about what had...

The world will have to live with surprise asteroid attacks on the scale of Friday's Russian fireball, at least for a while. The meteor that without warning Friday (Feb. 15), damaging hundreds of buildings and wounding more than 1,000 people, was caused by a space rock about 50 feet (15 meters) wide, researchers said. Asteroids of this size are both difficult to detect and incredibly numerous, so it will take a long time for astronomers to find and map out...

Highway from Kazakhstan to Chelyabinsk, Russia A dashboard camera, on a highway from Kostanai, Kazakhstan, to Chelyabinsk region, Russia on Friday, Feb. 15, 2013 shows a meteorite contrail. A meteor streaked across the sky of Russia’s Ural Mountains, causing sharp explosions and injuring dozens of people. (AP Photo/Nasha Gazeta, www.ng.kz) MOSCOW-- Scientists have found more than 50 tiny fragments of a meteor that exploded over Russia's Ural Mountains, and preliminary tests are turning up information about its contents. However, local...

Last Friday morning, residents of Russia's Chelyabinsk region were shocked by a giant fireball streaking across the sky. The explosion, caused by a small meteoroid entering the atmosphere, reportedly injured hundreds as it blew out windows and sent glass flying. Dozens of videos of the meteor trail and its aftermath quickly appeared online, and analyses of these eyewitness accounts as well as measurements from scientific instruments are giving scientists one of the best looks ever at an atmospheric meteor burst....

NASA says no problems happened after a brief communication outage with the International Space Station Tuesday. (NASA.GOV) WASHINGTON (AP) -- The International Space Station regained contact with NASA controllers in Houston after nearly three hours of accidental quiet, the space agency says. (MORE: 7 Massive Meteors That Impacted Earth) Officials say the six crew members and station are fine and had no problem during the brief outage. NASA spokesman Josh Byerly said something went wrong around 9:45 a.m. EST Tuesday...

NASA has revealed the first radar video of an asteroid flyby that sent a space rock half the size of a football field buzzing by Earth last week. The new , released today (Feb. 19), shows the asteroid 2012 DA14 as it headed away from Earth over the weekend. The asteroid zipped close by Earth on Friday (Feb. 15), when it approached closer to the planet than many communications satellites. Before Friday's flyby, astronomers suspected asteroid 2012 DA14 was about...

Jupiter vacuumed up the pieces of the disrupted comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 in 1994, but the impacts were a reminder of the danger faced by Earth. (JPL/NASA/STScI) Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 experienced one of the most spectacular ends that humans ever witnessed. Several months after its discovery, pieces of the comet smashed into the planet Jupiter. The collision produced scars that were visible from Earth in small telescopes. "This is the first collision of two solar system bodies ever to be observed,...