I gather that an asteroid of this size would have disastrous global consequences if it hit. A much smaller "surprise" one, that snuck up on us and missed by only 75,000 miles last month, would have released energy equivalent to a large nuke had it impacted, according to a CNN article.

One of these damn big ones is going to hit someday, as many have in a past that seems ancient to us only because we are like unto mayflies on the scale of geologic time. Yeah it'll probably just wipe out our descendants' descendants' descendants' etc. etc., assuming humanity, or its successor species, survives that long anyway. But so what? Now that there are multicellular organisms here who can predict these cyclical events and detect the rocks and conceivably DO something about it----we sure need to try.

I'm with McGrath: just nudge the things./ Unfurl a big sail on 'em to catch the solar wind, and tack over to a safe course. /Hey! Spacefaring sea chanteys! There are possibilites here. / But who can we send up to do the job? Wait! Aaaa-HA! **Shatner**!!