09/11/2011 11:17
Huge asteroid zooms past Earth
An asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier has flown by Earth in the closest encounter by a massive space rock in more than 30 years.
The asteroid, named 2005 YU55, came within about 325,000 kilometers of the planet Tuesday evening. The U.S. space agency, NASA, said there was no chance that the spherical rock would collide with Earth or the moon. The asteroid was traveling at more than 46,670 kilometers per hour. It passed closer to Earth than the moon.
YU55 is about 400 meters in diameter. Scientists believe it has been passing by Earth for thousands of years. It is one of about 8,500 near-Earth objects that NASA has catalogued, the Voice of America reports.
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