Yeah, Right, Whatever

... will it be named Dottie?

An asteroid expected to fly past Earth in 2029 will be visible to the naked eye, scientists projected Thursday.

It's a once-in-a-millennium event. And you may want to buy plane tickets now, as the flyby will be visible only from Europe, Africa and western Asia.

There has been no event like this in modern history. Some people have seen dramatic fireballs created by small space rocks blazing through Earth's atmosphere. And two house-sized asteroids have made closer passes. But they were not visible without telescopes.

The 2029 event will be the closest brush by a good-sized asteroid known to occur. The rock will pass Earth inside the orbits of some satellites. No other asteroid has ever been clearly visible to the unaided eye.

And, no, if you didn't get it, I'm not explaining it to you.

UPDATE: It has been brought to my attention that my attention to nit-picky details and random pieces of trivia might be really cool if you're my Trivial Pusuit partner, but... if you're reading a post with an obscure film quote reference, it might just be a bit too much.

OK... Here's the scoop... "Dottie" was the name of the asteroid in the movie Armageddon. Here's the quote (PG-13 warning):

Karl: Sir, I'm retired navy, I know all about classified. But one more thing. The person who finds her gets to name her right?
Dan: Yes, yes that's right, that's right.
Karl: I wanna name her Dottie after my wife. She's a vicious life-sucking bitch from which there is no escape.
Dan: That's... that's nice, Karl.

There. Now... go rent the movie. I will be bringing it Blogfest if anyone needs a fix. As for me... I will now go wallow in my new status as movie nerd...