Asteroid shocks, Scientists' urgent warning after surprise rock’s close

Asteroid shocks, Scientists' urgent warning after surprise rock’s close shave with Earth.

THE EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY (ESA) has issued an urgent warning after an asteroid whizzed past the Earth just days after it was spotted last month.

Called 2019 OK, the asteroid came with in one-fifth of the distance to the Moon on July 25. ESA admitted the space rock was not recognised as a near-Earth asteroid. As reported by Metro, Rudiger Jehn, ESA’s Head of Planetary Defence said: “This ‘un-recognition’ of an asteroid, despite it being photographed will be used to test the software going into ESA’s upcoming asteroid-hunting telescope, the Flyeye.

Another asteroid, is set to pass by our planet on Saturday.

NASA says there is no danger of a collision but its size means that whilst it is  expected to be no closer than 4.6 million miles, it is classed as “potentially hazardous”.

If it hits any land, it might obliterate an entire city.
Should it hit water, it could cause devastating tsunamis.
NASA believes it has found over 90 percent of near-Earth objects that are 1km (0.6miles) in diameter or larger.
A massive asteroid or comment, believed to be between six and nine miles in diameter is thought to have hit Earth some 66 million years ago.
It is widely considered this event resulted in the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Paul Chodas, the manager of the Centre for Near-Earth Object Studies, said that there are very few asteroids with a chance of hitting Earth.
Benny is one that does.
It is the size of five football fields and weighs 79 billion kilograms.
Benny has a 1 in 2,7000 chance of colliding with our planet between 2175 and 2199.