An asteroid the size
of three blue whales just zoomed past Earth, but don't worry, Earthlings were not at risk from this space rock.
The asteroid missed the
planet by more than 2.2 million miles, about 10 times the moon-Earth distance, at its closest approach
The asteroid, known as
2021 GT2, is between 121 and 272 feet (37 to 83 meters) wide, which means it could wipe out a city, if it were to hit Earth.
2021 GT2, hurtling
through space at a mind-boggling speed of 16,000 mph (26,000 kph), is a so-called Aten asteroid
2021 GT2,
discovered last year, orbits the sun every 342 days and is one of 1,800 Aten asteroids currently known.
The next "close" encounter
between 2021 GT2 and Earth will take place in January 2034. That encounter will pose no risk to Earth either