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Asteroid Came Dangerously Close to the Earth and NASA Didn't Notice Until a Day Later

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A major asteroid passed close to the earth last month without any warning. 

The London Daily Mail reports the asteroid known as 2017 VL2, measured between 52 to 105 feet in diameter.

Traveling at an estimated speed of 5.5 miles per second, it passed within 73,000 miles of the earth on Nov. 9. But NASA didn't spot it until a day later at the Mauna Loa observatory located on the island of Kona in Hawaii. 

Scientists speculate that if the rock had struck the earth, it could have wiped out all life within a four-mile area of the impact.

The asteroid is a part of the Apollo group of asteroids which are near-Earth asteroids discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s. It has been estimated there are 8,000 in this group of space rocks.

Scientists say almost 1,500 of these asteroids have the potential of striking the earth. The rock from this latest encounter is scheduled to pass the earth again in 2125. 
 

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