Huge asteroid the size of a football pitch skims past Earth - and scientists hadn’t spotted it

A newly discovered asteroid the size of a football pitch skimmed past alarmingly close to Earth – and scientists hadn’t spotted it in advance.

The asteroid – 2018 GE3 – came just 119,500 miles away from our planet, around half the distance between Earth and the noon.

NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) estimated the size at between 131 and 328 feet.

That’s even bigger than the asteroid which ‘blew up’ over the Russian town of Chelyabinsk in 2013, which is thought to have been around 60 feet across.

During the 2013 Chelyabinsk event, 1500 people were injured and 7300 buildings damaged by the intense overpressure generated by the shockwave at Earth’s surface.

Space Weather reported, ‘2018 GE3 was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey approaching Earth on April 14th.

MOST POPULAR TODAY ON YAHOO

• Couple furious after Morrisons refuse to sell them meat pies before 9am

• Russia sends warships laden with tanks towards Syria as Putin threatens ‘chaos’ if another attack is launched

• US military killed 200 Russia troops in Syria airstrikes, claims Trump ally

• Eight legged treats: Restaurant offers TARANTULA as a burger topping

• Russia carries out cyber attack targeting ‘critical infrastructure’ across the world

‘Hours later, amateur astronomer Michael Jäger of Weißenkirchen Austria video-recorded the space rock gliding through the southern constellation Serpens.’