Asteroid flies by Earth closer than any seen before, Nasa says

An asteroid the size of a car has flown past Earth closer than any seen before without hitting the planet – and NASA admits: “We didn’t see it coming.”

Known as asteroid 2020 QG, NASA said the space rock passed 1,830 miles (2,950 km) above the southern Indian Ocean on Sunday.

If it had actually been on an impact trajectory, it would likely have become a “fireball” as it broke up in the Earth’s atmosphere, the US space agency said.

“It’s really cool to see a small asteroid come by this close, because we can see the Earth’s gravity dramatically bend its trajectory,” said Paul Chodas, director of the Centre for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

Source: Sky News