A Close Asteroid FlybyBy David Tytell Hurtling out of the “blind spot” between the Sun and crescent Moon , asteroid 2002 MN skimmed about 120,000 kilometers above the Earth’s surface during the early hours of Friday, June 14th. Nobody saw it until three days later, despite the fact that it penetrated to within 30 percent of the Earth-Moon distance. The trajectory is labeled at 0 hours Universal Time on successive dates. S&T illustration: Steven Simpson June 19, 2002 | On June 17th, astronomers from the Lincoln Laboratory Near Earth Asteroid Research project (LINEAR) discovered a new Earth-crossing...