A truck-sized asteroid zoomed frighteningly close to Earth this weekend

A truck-sized asteroid passed within 40,563 miles of Earth on Sunday, just hours after it was first spotted by scientists, CBS News reports. It was a very, very near miss: The moon, by comparison, is 238,900 miles away from Earth.

The asteroid is estimated to be approximately 15 feet by 33 feet in size. You can breath a sigh of relief at least — to cause "worldwide effects," an asteroid would probably have to be about a mile wide. NASA reports that "space rocks smaller than about 25 meters (about 82 feet) will most likely burn up as they enter the Earth's atmosphere and cause little or no damage."

What is more concerning is that Sunday's asteroid came out of nowhere. "We didn't expect 2017 BH30 and other nearby asteroids to seem to be sneaking up on us every other week, so keep your eyes open," CBS News reports.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up