Astronomers and scientists are saying that we are going through the tail of Halley's Comet this month, and there will be meteor showers as we go through. Even though we usually are not hit by large asteroids like the one that crashed over Russia a few years ago, there are smaller ones that impact the earth all of the time. When I lived in Idaho, one night there was some kind of a meteorite or asteroid that went right over where I was at, and it lit up the whole sky a bright and beautiful green color, and then shook the ground when it crashed somewhere. Even though we have foreknowledge of some of the asteroids that will come by earth, there seem to be some that catch us by surprise, like the one that hit Russia. It is speculated that the huge fire in Canada could have been caused by an asteroid hit; and if that is so, they are not saying anything about it in the news we hear on television. Another interesting thing, is that Russia is testing a nuclear warhead large enough to wipe out the whole state of Texas, or a country the size of France. What are they going to shoot it at ? Not likely anyplace here on earth because of the devastation and wars that it would cause; and the next best guess is that they are getting ready to shoot down an incoming asteroid. It looked like the one that crashed over Russia exploded before it impacted the ground; so it is entirely possible that they shot that one before it crashed, too.
If a large enough asteroid hit the Earth, we would at best be sent back to the stone age ( no pun intended!) and, at worst wiped out with only much simpler life forms surviving. Years ago Arthur C Clarke or Isaac Asimov suggested "mapping" asteroids by, I think sending out an omnidirectional pulse of radiation. The complex returning signal would give the position and speed of all significantly sized asteroids and analysis of the information would indicate any that amounted to a threat to our existence. These could have their positions altered by using a force. Even a laser could do that. However an OMG moment of detecting an asteroid at the distance of the moon, as in the movies would be way too late. Whoops! Before anyone corrects me I've realized we should be saying meteors rather than asteroids - those are the minable hunks of rock between mars and Jupiter.
Here is a video of one fireball that must have flashed through the sky somewhere up near @Ken Anderson 's area , since it was in Maine. There are several videos and some awesome still shots of the fireball streaking through the sky. I haven't seen any reports about where it crashed at; but maybe Ken will see something more on his local news up in Maine.
I remember seeing a video of a very scary meteor, I think it was over the US and about 1972. Thank goodness it didn't hit the earth, but just 'grazed' the atmosphere
Over the news we get details about meteor showers and we can watch them at our Planetarium. NASA has a dept. for asteroid watch. The Universe and Earth has aged from the dinosaur era, so there are bound to be changes in the Universe too that NASA is keeping up with.
In 1833, there was a huge meteor shower that was seen all over in the United States, and the place that saw the most "shooting stars" was in norhern Alabama. We used to have license plates that proclaimed "stars fell on Alabama", when I first moved out here, although I think they no longer sell those plates. There was a book written about the Leonid meteor showers, and then a famous song by the same name came after the book. One of the most famous singers of the song was Frank Sinatra. Acording to the stories about that spectacular night, people thought that the world was ending, and went to be with their familie for their "last hours on earth". The sky was lit up so brightly with all of the cascading stars that people woke up and roosters started crowing, thinking that it was morning. The Leonid meteor showers can be seen each year in November; but they have never been as spectacular as they were that one night in 1833. http://alabamapioneers.com/stars-fell-on-alabama/#sthash.vgxBNlV9.dpbs