An asteroid about the size of one that blasted Siberia a century ago just buzzed the Earth on March 2, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported.

Measuring between 69 feet and 154 feet in diameter, asteroid 2009 DD45 passed just 41,010 miles (66,000 kilometers) above Earth, between our planet and the moon at 13:44 universal time, with a speed of about 12 miles (20 kilometers) a second in the point closest to Earth. Still, the distance was not as close as the tiny meteoroid 2004 FU162, which came within 4,000 miles in 2004.

The distance is about twice as far as the highest geostationary satellite, which orbits the Earth.

"We get objects passing fairly close, or closer than this, every few months," said Timothy Spahr, director of the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center in Massachusetts.

The meteor passed the Earth marking the Pacific Ocean, near Tahiti, its closest potential target.

"Also, though, note these are only the ones that are discovered. Many more pass this close undetected"—as asteroid 2009 DD45 nearly did, Spahr added.

The space rock wasn't noticed by astronomers until February 28, when it showed up as a faint dot in pictures taken at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia. At the time it was about 1 million miles away. However, Spahr said he knew within an hour of that discovery that it would pose no threat to Earth.

Asteroids as big as the 1908 Tunguska object that devastated the Siberian forest might strike Earth as often as once every two centuries, scientists speculate