The most recent, asteroid 2024 MK, was 500 feet wide, passing within about 184,000 miles (295,000 kilometers) of Earth. The larger asteroid 2011 UL21 passed Earth on 27 June at a distance of 4.1 million miles (6.

Just in time for Asteroid Day, two of them – one a giant, the other closer than the moon – whizzed past Earth 42 hours apart.

MK nor 2011 UL21, as the asteroids are named, came close enough to pose a hazard, but both were within range of radar imaging systems. So NASA got a few happy snaps to mark the occasion. These are more than just asteroid flyby souvenirs.

The scientists tracked the two asteroids at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California which made a flyby but did not pose a hazard