The article describes two ways this can happen: “Little sister”: a break-up event by an earlier near-collision with earth, and Earth’s gravitational forces bre

The article describes two ways this can happen: “Little sister”: a break-up event by an earlier near-collision with earth, and Earth’s gravitational forces breaking up the asteroid, and collision happening in a later orbit. “Little cousin”: a collision in the asteroid belt breaks up an asteroid, and the fragments hit earth later. Google gives me no hits for these terms, except for discussion of this article, though.