Earth skimmed by fifth closest documented asteroid

[JoannaW]

An asteroid about the dimensions of a bus will move over the Atlantic Monday morning. It will move only about 7,500 miles over the ground. That is nearer to the earth than the moon is. It is the 5th nearest such incident documented. Post resource - Fifth closest Asteroid recorded shaves the passes earth by Newsytype.com.

Other asteroids didn't hit

Although 2011 MD's trajectory is close in astronomical terms, scientists claim there is no danger of collision. The asteroid 2011 CQ1 came within 3,405 miles of The planet in February 2011. Nothing happened then. Those Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) scientists in Pasadena, Calif., did an Asteroid Watch Twitter feed where they said they are in the skies watching:

"Scientists will use the close pass as an opportunity to study it with radar observations... Stony asteroids of less than 25 meters will break up in Earth's atmosphere and not cause ground damage."

Detection through LINEAR

The asteroid 2011 MD was discovered on June 22 by LINEAR, a pair of robotic telescopes located in New Mexico. The asteroids getting close to The planet are always detected from the gadget.

A bunch of asteroids out there

Asteroids are tiny objects of minerals and ice which orbit the sun. The bigger ones are often called planetoids. The asteroids mostly all orbit in around the same area. They stay between Jupiter and Mars for the most part. Asteroids were considered rare for a long time. That was the belief for centuries. These incidents are more common than originally believes though, scientists have realized.

There are nearly 8,100 Near-Earth products on record. When one is really close and very large, it is considered Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs). There have been 1,236 labeled this way.

The next NASA goal

NASA's shuttle program is ending. At the same time, it announced it will soon demolish an asteroid. Asteroid 1999 RQ36 will be the asteroid shot in 2020 as the asteroid has a 1 in 1,800 chance of, by 2170, hitting the planet.

Articles cited

Space.com

space.com/12067-asteroid-2011-md-close-earth-flyby-june-27.html

Universe Today

universetoday.com/87035/another-asteroid-to-give-earth-a-close-shave-june-27-2011/

Huffington Post

huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/27/asteroid-today-2011_n_885052.html