Earth narrowly escapes the wrath of a dangerous 600-feet wide asteroid, but another headed for us, says NASA

The Earth just got lucky! By a very small margin though. After 2016 CZ31, which flew past the Earth on July 29, the Earth escaped another asteroid strike today. At 600-feet, an even bigger asteroid was hurtling towards the Earth very today, July 30, but it has now moved past our planet. If this dangerous asteroid had struck the Earth, it could have spelled a major disaster for us. But, it is too early to celebrate as yet another large asteroid is heading towards us on August 4, according to NASA. Read on to know more details and find out whether the next asteroid can strike us.

On July 25, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of NASA, reported on its website that a 600-feet or 183-meters wide asteroid, named 2013 CU83 will be coming close to the Earth. The 2013 in its name represents the year when it was first discovered. According to its trajectory prediction, the asteroid made a safe passage across the planet at a distance of 6.8 million kilometers. The distance might seem very large to some, but in astronomical terms and considering the excessively high speed of these space rocks, this distance could have been covered in a short period of time.

Asteroid, as large as a skyscraper, narrowly misses the Earth

Due to its size and close proximity to the Earth, this asteroid was classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid. This means that this asteroid has a real (albeit very small) chance of striking the Earth in future. If this asteroid did strike the planet, a major catastrophe could have been caused. Apart from the impact destruction, which would have flattened hundreds of kilometers of area, it would have also caused shockwaves across the planet, massive earthquakes and tsunamis.

But the threat is not over yet. According to NASA, on August 4, a 710-feet wide asteroid named 2022 OE2 will be approaching the Earth. This is the first time this asteroid has been observed to come close to the Earth so there is a lot of unpredictability and lack of data about this asteroid.