(CNN) -- Friday was an extremely unusual day, astronomically speaking. Just as scientists were gearing up to witness an asteroid's closest ever approach to Earth in recorded history, a sizeable meteor exploded over Russia, causing thousands of injuries and major damage to buildings. The asteroid, named DA14, came within 17,000 miles or so, as close as a telecommunication satellite in geosynchronous orbit. DA14 is quite a bit smaller than YU55, the asteroid that passed Earth in November 2011, but DA14 came more than 10 times closer. These two rare events occurred the same day. Your inner mathematician and your inner prophet of the end times think they should be connected. But scientists say they are not. What gives?
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Meg Urry: Friday was an extremely unusual day, astronomically speaking
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Urry: The probability that a meteor hits and an asteroid passes by is improbable
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She says the chance of the two events happening on the same day is about 1 in 100 million
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Urry: Even though we think they could be connected, the two rare events are not connected
First of all, in the time between the two events, the @placeholder moved roughly 300,000 miles, meaning the asteroid and the meteor were in completely different places.