An asteroid dubbed a ‘city-killer’ narrowly missed colliding with the Earth on Thursday, scientists have revealed.
Asteroid 2019 OK - around 100 metres in diameter and racing at 24 kilometres a second - flew past Earth at around 11.22am on Thursday morning.
Astronomers had no idea the rock was coming due to the asteroid flying towards us from the direction of the sun.
Associate Professor Michael Brown, from Monash University, said: “It’s impressively close. I don’t think it’s quite sunk in yet. It’s a pretty big deal.
"[If it hit Earth] it makes the bang of a very large nuclear weapon – a very large one."
Three other asteroids also hurtled past Earth on Thursday, but none were as close or as large as 2019 OK.