Yesterday, a large asteroid passed the Earth within the moon’s orbit. Asteroid 2005 YU55, roughly the size of a large jumbo jet, safely passed the Earth on its journey through space. The last time an asteroid of this sized passed the Earth was in 1976. According to NASA, the asteroid passed at some 201,700 miles from the center of the Earth, or 0.85 times the distance of the moon to the Earth. We did not feel any of the gravitational effects of the asteroid passing. The picture above was taking by a radio space antenna on November 7, 2011 at 11:45am US PST. Take a moment to look upwards at the heavens and realize that a giant chunk of space rock just passed our home in the heavens to say “Hi.” For more information check out the NASA News Article.
