Asteroid near-miss
An asteroid came within “astronomical” inches after telescopes failed to detect the rock straight away. The near-miss came when a space rock hurtled just 0.19 lunar distances of the Earth - just inches in astronomical terms. NASA eventually detected the asteroid but only after it was revealed to be on a near-direct for the planet, which could have resulted in mass extinction.
The asteroid, called “2019 OK”, was reported to be the size of a football field, coming within an estimated 48,000 miles of Earth. NASA were only notified 24 hours in advance of the asteroids arrival. The space agency paid its thanks to a small telescope in Brazil that managed to detect the partially invisible asteroid.
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