Asteriod Near Earth Pass on Monday

According to NASA, an asteroid with a size between 29 to 98 feet (9 to 30 meters) wide, will be near earth at 1:14 p.m. EDT (1714 GMT) on June 27, Monday. Called 2011 MD, it will pass just over 7,500 miles (12,000 kilometers) above the Earth’s surface.

Is there any chance that the asteroid may hit or enter the earth? “There is no chance that 2011 MD will hit Earth but scientists will use the close pass as opportunity to study it w/ radar observations,” astronomers with NASA’s Asteroid Watch program at JPL wrote in a Twitter post Thursday (June 23).

But if the asteroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it likely wouldn’t reach the surface as asteroids less than 25 m would break up in Earth’s atmosphere & not cause ground damage.