About an hour ago, asteroid 2011 MD buzzed right by Earth

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About an hour ago, asteroid 2011 MD buzzed right by Earth

When asteroid 2011 MD came whizzing past here about an hour ago, it was the the closest asteroid to visit us for a little while, but no one had any fears that it was going to hit us, now or in the near future. What it did do was get a good view of the South Pacific Ocean and that was it.

Here’s an asteroid view of the approach, put together by astronomer Pasquale Tricaric:

So 2011 MD’s orbit is a bit more oval and a bit bigger than ours, just barely crossing it. Asteroids like that are called Apollo asteroids, and there are quite a few in that category. As you can see in this diagram, the orbits are so similar it’s hard to distinguish them on the left — look to the right and you’ll see them separate (also shown are the orbits and positions of Mercury, Venus, and Mars for June 27).

It orbits the Sun in 1.085 years, so every 13 years or so (12 of its orbits) we pass it. Some encounters are closer than others, and this is most likely the closest we’ve come in a long time, and most likely will be for some time in the future as well (especially given how much the orbit of 2011 MD will change). In fact, this will be the fifth closest approach of an asteroid on record… and one of those on the list, 2008 TC3, actually impacted us, harmlessly breaking up high over Africa in 2008.

Via