An Undiscovered Asteroid Brushed Closely to Earth

Massive flying rocks like asteroids in space at an unprecedented speed pose a threat to the Earth. Scientists and astronomers carefully monitor the behavior of identified space rocks like asteroids that can potentially impact the Earth. But nature continues to surprise the world, as an undiscovered asteroid came very close to Earth last August 28.

The asteroid almost brushed the Earth after it was spotted a day before. It was named asteroid 2016 QA2, and the space rock came as close as 50,000 miles (80,000 kilometers) near the Earth. This distance is even closer that the moon's orbit to Earth at about 239,000 miles (384,600 kilometers), according to Space.com.

The asteroid is believed to be about 80 to 180 feet (25 to 55 meters) wide. It is slightly bigger than those previously spotted on Earth. The SONEAR Observatory in Brazil identified asteroid QA2 last Aug. 27.

Based on observation by the Minor Planet Center, the asteroid follows a more elliptical orbit compared to that of the Earth. It goes near the Sun at about 0.76 astronomical unit (AU) and as far as 1.18 AU. The asteroid completes one orbit to the Sun every 350 days.

Normally, space rocks orbit the Sun, but some of them pose a threat to Earth. But Asteroids, especially the bigger ones, can obliterate the Earth in an impact.

"We believe anything larger than one to two kilometers (one kilometer is a little more than one-half mile) could have worldwide effects," a NASA official said in a statement.

But despite that, asteroids are also considered significant in understanding the universe. Since asteroids rarely change by time, they can hold materials that can explain further how the universe was formed.

This September, NASA will launch OSIRIS-REx to perform surface mapping of the asteroid Bennu, a near-Earth object and to collect samples from the space rock using its robotic arms.