NASA's 'intruder alert' spots cosmic flyby

Earth experienced a near miss on Sunday night as an asteroid passed near our planet. While the object posed no threat, it did get close, dodging us by only 310,000 miles. Astronomers spotted this the Near Earth Object (NEO) thanks to an experimental "intruder alert" NASA program to detect and track potentially harmful space rocks passing close to our planet. The asteroid is one of many recent discoveries of NEOs as NASA and other international programs continue to refine techniques for discovering these potential threats from space. In recent years, scientists have become increasingly concerned with the question of protecting Earth from potential collisions.