Asteroid 2014 MH6 passed by the Earth at a distance of 247 100 km (0.64 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon), at about 2.05 pm GMT on Sunday 22 June 2013. There was no danger of the asteroid hitting us, though had it done so it would have presented no threat. 2014 MH6 has an estimated equivalent diameter of 7-23 m (i.e. it is estimated that a spherical object with the same volume would be 7-23 m in diameter), and an object of this size would be expected to break up in the atmosphere between 36 and 20 km above the ground, with only fragmentary material reaching the Earth's surface.
The calculated orbit of 2014 MH6. JPL Small Body Database Browser.
2014 MH6 was discovered on 24 June 2014 (two days after its closest approach to the Earth) by the University of Arizona's Mt. Lemmon Survey at the Steward Observatory on Mount Lemmon in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson.. The designation 2014 MP implies that it was the 158th asteroid (asteroid H6) discovered in the second half of June 2014 (period 2014 M).
2014 MH6 has an 494 day year orbital period and an eccentric orbit, tilted somewhat to the plain of the Solar System, that takes it from 0.60 AU from the Sun (i.e. 60% of the average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun, and inside the orbit of Venus) to 1.85 AU from the Sun (i.e. 185% of the average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun, considerably more than the distance at which the planet Mars orbits the Sun). It is therefore classed as an Apollo Group Asteroid (an asteroid that is on average further from the Sun than the Earth, but which does get closer). Encounters between 2014 MH6 and the Earth are thought to be fairly common, with the next predicted for July 2018.
See also...
Asteroid 2014 MP passed by the Earth at a distance of 3 483 000 km (9.05 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon), slightly before 5.40 am GMT on Sunday 22 June 2013. There was...
Asteroid 2014 MX passed by the Earth at a distance of about 6 265 000 km (16.13 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon), slightly after 10.30 pm GMT on Friday 20 June 2014...
Asteroid 2014 KC46 passed by the Earth at a distance of about 4 331 000 km (11.26 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon), slightly after 9.40 pm GMT on Sunday 8 June 2014. There...
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