A GIANT asteroid has just made a “close approach” to Earth.
Nasa has Asteroid 2022 on its NEO Earth Close Approaches table and has been keeping an eye on it.
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The giant space rock measures a staggering 525 feet.
That’s almost twice as big as the Statue of Liberty.
New York’s famous landmark stands at 305 feet when you include the base and 151 feet when you only include the female figure.
An asteroid of that size could do some serious damage if it hit Earth.
Fortunately, the large space rock stayed just under 1.8million miles away from our planet when it shot past earlier today on June 17.
That may sound pretty far away but in the grand scheme of space, this isn’t a large distance at all.
That’s why Nasa has still flagged it as a “close approach”.
If an asteroid comes within 4.65million miles and is over a certain size, it’s considered “potentially hazardous” by cautious space agencies.
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The asteroid was spotted moving at around 27,000 miles per hour.
Plans to save Earth from asteroids
Some experts are worried that Earth isn’t yet ready to defend itself from potentially deadly asteroids.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk once sparked concern by tweeting: “a big rock will hit Earth eventually & we currently have no defense.”
Nasa is looking into some defense methods though.
It recently launched its Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission.
Nasa said: “DART is the first-ever mission dedicated to investigating and demonstrating one method of asteroid deflection by changing an asteroid’s motion in space through kinetic impact.”
The DART craft should slam into a small asteroid called Dimorphos in September with the aim of moving it off course.
