While most of the world nonchalantly went about its business on Monday, March 02, a few twitchy stargazers were intently following the path of a near-Earth asteroid carrying the potential to create significant damage to the planet’s surface.
Although the snappily named DD45 2009 narrowly avoided a collision with Earth, passing by harmlessly at a distance of around 40,000 miles, space rock experts believe the 200ft asteroid was a significant event and something of a fanfare-free near miss.
Speaking with Canadian publication the Ontario Citizen, astronomer Peter Brown of the University of Western Ontario said DD45 2009 was equivalent in size to the Tunguska asteroid that exploded above Siberia in 1908 and obliterated thousands of square miles of remote forestry.
According to Brown, “the last rock as large or larger than this to come this close was in 1973 and the next time will be in 2029 when Apophis makes its close approach.”
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