Asteroid 2020 QG, which is roughly the same size as a car, came within just 2,000 miles of our planet, making it the closest asteroid that experts are aware of. However, it was not until it made its way past Earth that experts became aware of it.
Paul Chodas, director of NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies, told Business Insider: “The asteroid approached undetected from the direction of the sun. We did not see it coming.
“Yesterday’s close approach is the closest to record, if you look at a few known asteroids that actually affected our planet.”
By comparison, the moon is an average of 238,855 miles from Earth, so the asteroid came much closer than that.
And 2,000 miles is actually not that far – Gibraltar is 1,756 miles away from London, while Rome is 1,433 miles.
And a little further out it is 2,924 miles to Tenerife from London, and 2,032 miles to Corfu, according to website How Far Is It Between.
But even if the asteroid had hit Earth, at about 20 feet in size, it would not pose a threat to life on our planet.
The potential damage it could have caused would have been similar to the Chelyabinsk incident.
In 2013, a 20-meter meteor exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, smashing windows and causing injuries to more than 1,000 people.
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NASA fears that the asteroid, which has the potential to wipe out a land on Earth, could hit our planet within the next 120 years, with the next near flyby in 2135.
OSIRIS-REx recently completed a major landmark in its quest to collect samples of the asteroid Bennu after coming closer to space rock than it ever did.
By collecting monsters, NASA hopes to unravel the secrets of the solar system, because Bennu is a remnant of the formation of our galactic neighbors some 4.6 billion years ago.
Bashar Rizk, instrument scientist for OSIRIS-REx, said: “The story of this asteroid is the story of the solar system.
“If we understand Bennu, we will have some fundamental understanding of our solar system.”
