NASA Tracks Asteroid As It Explodes Over Sudan

Only a 10-foot boulder-sized asteroid, and it destroyed itself in the atmosphere in a blaze of fire that was visible from the ground and from a passing airliner.

But it marks the first time that NASA has been able to track such an object as it collided with the Earth.

Read the whole article. A large enough asteroid could destroy all life on Earth because of its drastic effect on worldwide climate, so it is in our interest to keep track of what's in our neighborhood, metaphorically speaking.