On June 27, an asteroid dubbed 2011MD will make a pass 7,500 miles above the earth’s surface.

Asteroid fly-by’s are really no big deal, as they tend to happen quite regularly. What is troubling about this particular fly-by is that NASA and other sky watchers completely missed it until about four days before the scheduled pass.

Here’s something to dwell on as you head to work next week: A small asteroid the size of a tour bus will make an extremely close pass by the Earth on Monday, but it poses no threat to the planet

The asteroid will make its closest approach at 1:14 p.m. EDT (1714 GMT) on June 27 and will pass just over 7,500 miles (12,000 kilometers) above the Earth’s surface, NASA officials say. At that particular moment, the asteroid — which scientists have named 2011 MD — will be sailing high off the coast of Antarctica, almost 2,000 miles (3,218 km) south-southwest of South Africa.

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Asteroid 2011 MD was discovered Wednesday (June 22) by LINEAR, a pair of robotic telescopes in New Mexico that scan the skies for near-Earth asteroids. The best estimates suggest that this asteroid is between 29 to 98 feet (9 to 30 meters) wide.

Granted, Asteroid 2011MD is about the size of a school bus and an Extinction-Level-Event (ELE) object would be significantly larger.

But, the impression left upon us by the scientific community is that they have everything under control, and any potentially threatening space objects would be identified, cataloged, and analyzed  – and if necessary the public would be alerted.

How much do you trust that NASA will let us know of an imminent threat to Earth that might include asteroid impact, massive solar flare, coronal mass ejection – or perhaps something worse?