Bizarre

Asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier zips past earth

Tuesday, November 08, 2011
This image made from radar data shows asteroid 2005 YU55 when the space rock was at 3.6 lunar distances, which is about 860,000 miles, or 1.38 million kilometers, from Earth.

This image made from radar data obtained on Nov. 7, 2011 at 11:45 a.m. PST (2:45 p.m. EST/1945 UTC) and provided by NASA shows asteroid 2005 YU55 when the space rock was at 3.6 lunar distances, which is about 860,000 miles, or 1.38 million kilometers, from Earth. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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FRESNO, California (KFSN) -- An asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier has flown by our planet.

Experts estimated the closest it got to earth was 202-thousand miles away, at about 3:30 Tuesday afternoon.

If it hit, scientists say it could have blasted out a crater four miles across and 17-hundred feet deep and cause a tsunami 70 feet high.

Scientists discovered this asteroid six years ago and have been monitoring it.

Asteroids are leftovers from the formation of the solar system from about four and a half billion years ago.

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