PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - An asteroid about the size of one that
blasted Siberia a century ago just buzzed by Earth.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says the asteroid zoomed past
Monday morning.
The asteroid named 2009 DD45 was about 48,800 miles from Earth.
That is just twice the height of some telecommunications satellites
and about a fifth of the distance to the Moon.
The space ball measured between 69 feet and 154 feet in
diameter. The Planetary Society says it was the same size as an
asteroid that exploded over Siberia in 1908 and leveled more than
800 square miles of forest.
The asteroid was only spotted two days ago and at its closest
point passed over the Pacific Ocean near Tahiti.
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