HYDERABAD, June 26 (AGENCIES): It will be a treat for sky gazers on Monday as a recently discovered “Asteroid 2011 MD” will be passing by extremely close to the earth - at a distance of only 10,000-12,000 km. Experts say that it will be visible in India. Discovered on June 22 this year, the asteroid is estimated to be 8 to 18 metres long. It will pass by the earth on June 27 at 6.56 pm. N Raghunandan Kumar of Planetary Society India said that there was no danger to the earth. “If it tries to enter the earth’s atmosphere, the asteroid of this size would burn up. What is more interesting is this was discovered just two days ago though this asteroid existed for a long time now,” said Kumar.
