Near Miss

Google News told Fiorella that Russia's extraterrestrial invader is called a meteoroid when it's streaking through space, a meteor when it swoops down into our atmosphere, and a meteorite when it lands. Does that mean an asteroid should be called an aster if it breathes our air and an asterite if it hits?
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Fio, who absorbed far too much science fiction in her sequestered youth, wondered if this was the big one, if the government was trying to avoid panic in the streets by saying the outer-space bowling ball would gutter safely by us. But if you're reading this, you know the asteroid didn't strike us after all. Fio had on clean underwear just in case, but she bets plenty of die-hard survivalists went through more extensive preparations.  How many sociopaths with too many guns, too much ammunition, and too few brains holed up in their underground bunkers all day Friday?
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Fiorella's ever-fertile brain is seething with a short story involving the asteroid.  Stay tuned.