Mar 4, 2009 10:11 am US/Eastern
Asteroid's Near Miss A Cosmic Close Call
Heavenly Body Buzzes Earth; Comes Within 48,800 Miles
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) ―
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Fortunately, Asteroid 2009 DD45 didn't come quite this close to Earth as it passed us Tuesday morning.
NASA
An asteroid about the size of one that blasted Siberia a century ago just buzzed by Earth.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported that the asteroid zoomed past Monday morning.
The asteroid named 2009 DD45 was about 48,800 miles from Earth. That is just twice the height of some telecommunications satellites and about a fifth of the distance to the Moon.
The space ball measured between 69 feet and 154 feet in diameter. The Planetary Society said that made it the same size as an asteroid that exploded over Siberia in 1908 and leveled more than 800 square miles of forest.
Most people probably didn't notice the cosmic close call. The asteroid was only spotted two days ago and at its closest point passed over the Pacific Ocean near Tahiti.
(© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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