"Publications need to have these 'cliffhangers' to have visits," said Juan Luis Cano of the European Space Agency's Planetary Defense Office. "But on a daily basis we are visited by many objects."
The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs defines near-Earth objects (NEOs) simply as any asteroid or comet which passes close to Earth's orbit.
In fact, around 100 tons of space material hits Earth every day. Fortunately, the mass is spread across many tiny rocks, rather than one, large destructor.
Scientists like Cano know of about 34,000 NEOs, but none of the larger ones are currently on course to hit Earth.
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