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Will asteroid 2002 MN collide with Earth?
Asteroid 2002 MN was discovered in June 2002 a few days after it passed close to the Earth. The asteroid was around 120m in size and was 120,000 km from Earth at its closest, around one third of the distance to the Moon.
The asteroid was discovered after it passed us because it approached the Earth from the daytime side of the planet and thus could not be observed with ground-based telescopes. It has a 1 in 700,000 chance of colliding with the Earth in 2071 and is currently being monitored.
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