Monday, March 2, 2009

Move along... nothing to see here


updated 53 minutes ago
space.com

An asteroid the size of a 10-story building flew past Earth today about twice the distance as the highest Earth-orbiting satellites.

The space rock was about 115 feet (35 meters) wide, perhaps a bit larger than one thought to have created a colossal explosion in the air above Siberia in 1908 that flattened 500,000 acres (2,000 square kilometers) of forest.

Asteroid 2009 DD45 was closest to Earth today at about 8:40 a.m. ET. It was some 44,740 miles (72,000 km) away. That's twice the height of a geostationary communications satellite.

Astronomers had known the asteroid was coming and said there was no risk of collision.

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