in February 2012, a young dentist called Jaime Nomen was sailing ______ the Mediterranean coast of Spain, checking images on his laptop from a telescope 600 Kilometers away.

Suddenly, he _____ a dot of light racing through space.

Nomen knew _____ what it was.

He warned the International Astronomical Union, which ______ information about asteroids and telescopes around the world immediately started following the new asteroid's orbit.

They ______ a spectacular discovery: on 15th February 2013 "Asteroid 2012 D A14" would ____the Earth just 27 700 km above our heads. In space terms, that is close - very close.

Asteroid 2012 A D 14 was 30 meters across, which is enormous, but not quite as large as the asteroid that ______ in 1908 over the remote Tunguska region of Siberia, Russia.

The Tunguska event destroyed 80 million trees across 2,000 square km and even people over 60 km away were _____ over.