Asteroid Almost Hits Earth, Nobody Noticed! Must Watch (JULY 25, 2019

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A huge space rock with the surprisingly positive name 2019 OK that whizzed by the other day has been likened to other near-Earth incidents that are already part of history – the Tunguska event in Siberia in 1908, and the Chelyabinsk meteor of 2013. There were no confirmed fatalities, but the effects could be felt well beyond the atmospheric blast.

It appears that a large asteroid just snuck up in us, and astronomers were hardly aware of it.

The sizeable celestial body of about 187 to 427 feet (57 to 130 metres) in width, per data from NASA, flew by on Wednesday evening (GMT), at a distance of about 45,000 miles (73,000 kilometres) from Earth – “uncomfortably close” to our planet, one astronomer shared with The Washington Post.

Most importantly, it wasn’t one that astronomers had been tracking, although information had earlier surfaced that some asteroids would be passing relatively close to our planet.

If asteroid 2019 OK had actually collided with the Earth’s surface, the crash would have had far-reaching devastating consequences, Michael Brown, an associate professor in astronomy at Monash University in Australia, wrote in The Conversation.

"The lack of warning shows how quickly potentially dangerous asteroids can sneak up on us", Brown wrote. While the asteroid "is not a threat to Earth right now", other near-Earth asteroids of this kind could be.