An asteroid, called 2011 MD and measuring about 10 metres in diameter, flew by the Earth on June 27. Usually such a small fly-by isn’t worth reporting on, but what makes it interesting is that the rock flew so close that it passed between the Earth and our GPS satellites.
Obviously, it passed by hitting neither satellite nor planet, but I always find any close encounter a little humbling, and a stark reminder that the ‘big one’ will eventually come.
To place the fly-by in context, Pasquale Tricarico, a research scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, has created several videos showing the path of the asteroid and how close it came to the GPS satellites. You can check them out here, and I thoroughly recommend that you do.
