NO DOOM TODAY: Asteroid 2011 MD missed Earth by 7.600 miles. Life goes on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A small asteroid, estimated between 16 and 65 feet in diameter, whipped past Earth this afternoon – missing by a mere 7,600 miles.

Asteroid 2011 MD approached Earth at 1 p.m. EDT a full three and-a-half hours later than astronomers first predicted, the AP reports.

Asteroid 2011 MD passed Earth on June 27.

The space agency had earlier predicted no probability of the asteroid striking the Earth. NASA's @AsteroidWatch tweeted last week: "There is no chance that 2011 MD will hit Earth but scientists will use the close pass as opportunity to study it w/ radar observations."

But according to NASA, the asteroid was in a very earth-like orbit about the Sun, closer to the Earth than the Moon. And for a brief time, NASA predicted that the rock would be bright enough to be seen with even a modest-sized telescope(...)