Asteroid’s near miss with Earth

IT may have felt like any other minute as the clock struck 5.14pm yesterday, but it is worth noting as you go about your business today that it was, in fact, the moment an asteroid the size of a tour bus passed the Earth.

The asteroid passed just over 12,000km above the Earth’s surface, NASA officials confirmed.

At that moment, 2011 MD sailed high off the coast of Antarctica, almost 3,218km south-southwest of South Africa.