An asteroid passes at a distance that is calculated very close to Earth, which is 3,000 kilometers. Terrible, scientists detected it too late.
The asteroid, named 2021 UA1, is the third closest asteroid ever to approach the planet. It passes over Antarctica higher than the International Space Station, but lower than the satellites orbiting Earth.
Fortunately, this asteroid is small, only 2 meters in diameter or about the size of a refrigerator. Had it been closer to Earth, it might have burned up in the atmosphere. But that's not the problem.
If the asteroid was bigger and undetected and then hit the Earth, of course the consequences could be quite severe.
"The reason why its arrival is surprising is that this asteroid comes from behind the Sun, at noon, so it cannot be found at its closest distance," said astronomer Tony Dunn.
There are only two other asteroids recorded to be closer to Earth than 2021 UA1. First is 2020 CQ and 2020 VT4.
NASA once held a simulation of the scenario, namely what if there was an asteroid that secretly approached Earth without being caught. The only safe way is to evacuate immediately if any humans are at the point of collision.
In the latest mission to tackle the threat of asteroids, NASA made sure to immediately crash its plane into an asteroid. The mission called DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) is a test from the space agency to ward off if later there are asteroids that harm the planet.
The DART aircraft will be flown aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX on November 23, US time. The asteroid that will be hit is called Dimorphos, a small moon orbiting the asteroid Dydymos whose location is categorized as quite close to Earth.