PARIS, Jan 7: An asteroid big enough to wipe out a major country gave the Earth a close shave on Monday, passing less than twice the distance of the Moon from our planet, astronomers reported.

The space rock, designated 2001 YB5, measures between 220 and 490 metres and at its closest point, at 0737 GMT, hurtled past about 600,000 kilometres from the Earth, according to varying estimates on US and European specialist websites.

2001 YB5 was spotted in early December by a Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) survey telescope on Mount Palomar in California, NASA said on its Near-Earth Object (NEO) Programme website.

Although there had been no danger of collision from the asteroid, experts said the distance was a whisker in cosmic terms.

“Such an object could literally wipe out a medium-sized country if it impacted and lead to a global economic meltdown, unless we were extremely fortunate and it hit somewhere remote,” Benny Peiser, an asteroid expert at Liverpool John Moores University, told AFP by phone.

Only one other identified asteroid, a rock called 1999 AN10, will come closer, making a flyby on August 7, 2027 at about 389,000 kms. An object 220-490 metres across would release energy equivalent to hundreds of atomic bombs if it wacked into the Earth.—AFP