Trying to think out of the box, which I'm now starting to wish I'd never climbed into, I can see how it might be used as an experiment into the logistics of asteroid mining or something. Or there could be an angle regarding developing the mission protocols for shepherding 'doomsday' asteroids into less apocalyptic orbits. Then again, maybe someone wants to do it just to show that they can.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'