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Radio France Internationale
Radio France Internationale
Michael Fitzpatrick

Truck-sized asteroid to zoom past Earth in nearest-ever cosmic miss

An artist's view of a near-Earth asteroid. © NASA/JPL/CALTECH/T.PYLE

The US space agency Nasa says we have nothing to worry about. The cosmic rock is nine metres wide and weighs as much as a shipping container – and it's going to miss the southern tip of South America by at least 3,600 kilometres.

This particular asteroid will pass so close to Earth that it will be inside the vast majority of manmade geostationary satellites as it sizzles through the upper atmosphere.

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