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Earth’s incredible luck continues! Despite being hit by multiple asteroids over the past two weeks, our planet has miraculously escaped each one. But perhaps the biggest feat is avoiding the city-killer asteroid that was expected to make its closest approach today, according to NASA. This 420 feet wide asteroid could have spelled a huge disaster for us, if it had hit the planet. At its size, it was capable of flattening at least a few kilometer radius of area and causing additional damage from shock waves, earthquakes, and tsunamis. But maybe it’s a little too early to celebrate. Read on to find out why.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a department of NASA, has provided more information about this giant asteroid. According to him, this asteroid was first seen in 2019 and was named 2019 AV13. Measuring 420 feet or 128 meters, it came within 5.2 million kilometers of Earth. But luckily it didn’t veer towards our planet and took a safe step away from the planet. Now, this asteroid is moving towards Mars and will cross its orbit to reach its aphelion (furthest point from the Sun).

A 420-foot-wide asteroid misses hitting Earth

Because of its size and proximity to Earth, this asteroid was called a near-Earth object, or NEO. This means that this asteroid has a real (albeit very small) chance of hitting Earth in the future. If this asteroid hit the planet, it could have caused a major catastrophe. And that’s why NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) has been constantly monitoring the space rock. And now that it’s passed through Earth’s neighborhood, we can finally breathe a sigh of relief, right? Not really.

It turns out that another asteroid bombardment is just two days away. On August 22, three asteroids will be heading towards our planet. The trio contains a 44-foot-wide asteroid called 2015 QH3, a 61-foot-wide asteroid called 2022 QM, and the largest of them, 92-foot-wide asteroid QW3. If any of them can pose a threat to Earth, only time will tell.