Asteroid to Make Close Pass by Earth on Monday

Newly discovered asteroid will zip by only 7,500 miles above the planet’s surface or roughly the same distance as Dacula to Afghanistan.

A team tasked with monitoring the skies for near-Earth objects (NEOs) that threaten the planet has discovered an asteroid that will pass only 7,500 miles above the Earth’s surface on June 27 -- a distance roughly the same as between Dacula, Ga. and Kabul, Afghanistan. The asteroid, named 2011 MD, was discovered by the Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) project, a program funded by the United States Air Force and NASA. A statement posted June 23 on NASA’s Near Earth Object Program website indicates the newly discovered asteroid will make its closest approach to Earth in the southern hemisphere over the southern Atlantic Ocean. In those areas, the asteroid should be bright enough to be seen with a “modest-sized telescope," …

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