We were ‘buzzed’ and we didn’t know it: asteroid fly-by Monday

First spotted on Feb. 28, an asteroid identified as 2009 DD45 buzzed by our planet on Monday, only 40,000 miles overhead between earth and the moon. Sky and Telescope reported that the asteroid flew over at an elevation twice as far above the earth as the orbit of telecommunications satellites we rely on every day.

We can purge the Hollywood notion of astronauts jumping into a spaceship loaded with an asteroid-killing bomb to keep us safe. When two chaps in Australia’s Siding Springs Observatory serendipitously spot an asteroid hurtling in earth’s general direction 48 hours or less before the asteroid is expected to be closest to the planet, there’s little to be done but wait for the fireworks.

Space geeks may want to mark their calendars for another celestial event one month from now; you can celebrate “100 Hours of Astronomy” with First Lady Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha as they train a telescope once owned by Thomas Jefferson on the skies on Saturday, April 4. The event is one of many which will mark 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy.