Saturday, June 25, 2011

Asteroid heading for Earth on Monday - don't panic!

An asteroid is heading for Earth, says NASA, for a close encounter on Monday.

But, as CBS reports, there's no need to panic. It's close in astronomical terms, but not that close - about 7,500 miles above the planet's surface over the Atlantic Ocean at 13.30 GMT.

The space rock, about 33ft long and called "2011 MD", won't hold this year's record for coming near us. Another one flew by within 3,400 miles (5,500 kilometers) - that's less than the distance between London to New York (3,471 miles)!

According to the report from Pasadena, California, more than "8,000 near-Earth objects" have been discovered, with around 1,236 designated as "potentially hazardous".

CBS REPORT


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