Although unlikely, I wonder if it will collect any geosynchronous satellites?

@Oaksey: The asteroid is traveling northwards through Earth's equatorial plane, on a path like a string through a wedding band. All the geosats are on the perimeter of the ring, not in the space between Earth and the ring. It's a very safe region for the visit, as there is generally speaking no "traffic" through there...
Dave

Maybe now would be a good opportunity to test one of the techniques for changing the course of an asteroid to avoid a collision with earth.

The Wikipedia says the moon is 356,400 km to 406,700 km from the Earth, so this thing is much closer. Hopefully the gravitational force of the moon and/or the planet Earth won't be enough to break any loose pieces off, and cause them to wipe out a city.

Thomas Prewitt, the whole asteroid is being attracted by the Earth, not just some pieces. So not a single piece of sand of its surface will hit Earth, unless it hit a satellite or some air particles of course. The asteroid is going to be falling towards Earth, and when skydivers fall their arms and legs don't fall off.

If my numbers are correct, it will get as close as 2.0 earth diameters from the earth's surface. That's a close miss!

Sorry. It's rather about 2.2 earth diameters from the surface.

phew! Now what exactly could we do about it? If it were to hit.

If this asteroid hit earth it could scare the nations of earth enough to help us prevent the next nuclear war. A lot like the plot of the watchmen but with a far more realistic chance of occuring. 20,000miles is nothing. A small change in solar wind could ensure this asteroid hits our planet. Plus, think of all the money that nasa a federal asteroid control programs will recieve from the asteroid central homeland command

re; MasterG
Nuke the hell out of it if it was going to hit something we value and can't move or evacuate the impact area.