Asteroid 1998 QE2 sails past Earth, leaving cosmic lessons behind

Asteroid 1998 QE2, a space rock big enough to wipe out civilization, sailed past our planet harmlessly on Friday -- but not before stirring up attention at the White House and around the world.There was never any chance that QE2 could hurt us. The closest it ever got was 3.6 million miles (5.8 million kilometers) at 4:59 p.m. ET. That's 15 times farther away than the distance between Earth and the ...