Three small asteroids, 1981 Midas, l915 Quetzalcoatl, and 2201 Oljato, will intersect Earth's orbit (but will not strike Earth) before the end of the century.
Over the years the creation story of Meteor Crater has unfolded. Between 20,000 and 50,000 years ago, an iron meteorite, 60 meters in diameter, entered the Earth's atmosphere. Friction did not retard its 25-kilometers-per-second speed, but it broke it into thousands of small pieces which scattered across the land at the time of impact.