Near-Earth asteroid 2011 MD passed only 12,300 kilometers (7,600 miles) above the Earth's surface on Monday June 27 at about 1:00 PM EDT. The asteroid was discovered by the LINEAR near-Earth object discovery team observing from Socorro, New Mexico.
The diagram shows the trajectory of 2011 MD projected onto the Earth's orbital plane over a four-day interval. This small asteroid, only 5-20 meters in diameter, is in a very Earth-like orbit about the Sun. The incoming trajectory leg passed several thousand kilometers outside the geosynchronous ring of satellites and the outgoing leg passed well inside the ring.
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