An asteroid flew past Earth on Monday afternoon, with is proximate point being only 7,600 miles, around 30 times closer to Earth than the moon.
Due to its proximity, Asteroid 2011MD was visible even with a modest telescope. It is believed that even if the asteroid had collided with the Earth, its relatively small size would have meant it burnt up in the atmosphere.
The next asteroid to pass Earth will be noticably larger. Asteroid 2005 YU55 is around 400 meters in diameter, and will pass the plant on Nov 8 at roughly 200,000 miles, or 0.85 the lunar distance.