A huge space rock appeared without warning over the weekend and barely missed Earth. The object is named 2018 GE3 and was observed on Saturday just hours before it zoomed by at the crack of dawn on Sunday at a distance of 119,500 miles, passing between our planet and the moon.
It was believed to be up to 330 feet wide, meaning it could have done serious damage if it smashed into our atmosphere. Luckily, the asteroid sped past and continued on its journey around the sun. If it was on a collision course with our planet and was big enough to cause serious damage, this late discovery would not have left governments enough time to evacuate cities which are in the firing line. It’s up to six times larger than the object which exploded in the skies over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in 2013. The ‘air burst’ caused by the detonating meteorite left about 400 people injured, with most wounds caused by shards of flying glass from windows smashed by the shock wave.