Asteroid passes near Earth

WASHINGTON - A big asteroid made its closest fly-by of Earth in 200 years on Tuesday, but there was never a chance of a crash landing as it zipped past our planet, NASA said.

Astronomers around the world aimed their telescopes to catch a glimpse of the 2005 YU55 asteroid, which is the size of an aircraft carrier but was not visible to the naked eye when it passed by at its closest point at 23:28 GMT.

"This is going to be really hard to see. This is 100 times more dim than what the human eye can see. You need a good telescope," NASA spokeswoman Veronica McGregor said before the fly-by.