Source: BBC News

The space rock came as close as 1,830 miles to the planet, which is the closest recorded close shave Earth has ever had with an asteroid!

But there’s no need to worry, had it entered Earth’s atmosphere its size would have seen it burn up so significantly that any remaining pieces probably wouldn’t have been dangerous.

“The asteroid approached undetected from the direction of the sun,” Paul Chodas, the director of Nasa’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies, explained.

“We didn’t see it coming,” he said.

Nasa and astronomers around the world constantly monitor space objects like this asteroid which has been named 2020 QG.

However objects are occasionally missed because they are obscured by the Sun, or are not in a telescope’s line of sight.

The Palomar Observatory in California first detected 2020 QG about six hours after it passed by Earth.

Analysis shows that the asteroid flew over the world’s southern hemisphere just after 5am UK time on Sunday 16 August.

“Yesterday’s close approach is closest on record, if you discount a few known asteroids that have actually impacted our planet,” said Chodas.

Had this asteroid reached Earth it would have exploded very high up in the atmosphere with a force similar to that of a small nuclear bomb.

For comparison an asteroid which was a similar size called 2018 LA was spotted before it actually hit the Earth two years ago. It exploded with only tiny parts of the space rock making it to the ground in Africa, causing no damage or injuries.

In 2013 a much larger asteroid exploded in the skies above the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, blowing out thousands of windows.

Source: BBC News