Back in July, Earth had a lucky escape after a 100-metre-wide asteroid flew perilously close to the planet.
Named 2019 OK, the asteroid passed our planet at a distance of 40,400 miles. While this might sound far, it’s terrifying close in astronomical terms.
Now, internal emails have revealed that NASA only learned of the asteroid hours before it skimmed our planet, according to a report by Buzzfeed News .
In one email, which Buzzfeed News obtained through a Freedom of Information request, one NASA employee admitted that the asteroid had ‘slipped through the net.’
Another email, from NASA’s planetary defence officer, Lindley Johnson, said: “Because there may be media coverage tomorrow, I'm alerting you that in about 30 mins a 57-130 meter sized asteroid will pass Earth at only 0.19 lunar distances (~48,000 miles).
“2019 OK was spotted about 24 hrs ago.”
The asteroid was spotted by an observatory in Brazil, which alerted NASA.
Worryingly, studies revealed that had the asteroid struck Earth, it could have wiped out an area measuring 50 miles accross.
In an email sent two days after the asteroid passed, Paul Chodas, manager of the Centre for Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA, wrote: “This object slipped through a whole series of our capture nets.
“I wonder how many times this situation has happened without the asteroid being discovered at all.”
It remains unclear how NASA, which regularly monitors the skies for asteroids, missed this huge space rock.
On its website, NASA said: 'Ground-based telescopes alone have limitations - for instance, they can only survey the skies at night and in clear skies. Based on statistical population estimates, about two thirds of [near Earth objects] larger than 460 feet still remain to be discovered."
