A gigantic asteroid classified as "potentially hazardous" hurtled safely past Earth on Thursday night, zipping by well outside of the moon's orbit but nonetheless thrilling amateur stargazers
Near-Earth asteroids are not an uncommon occurrence. Astronomers have recorded roughly 9,000 of them to date, according to the astronomy news website Space.com.
Astronomy Magazine analyst Bob Berman added during the webcast that
the event was "scary" and a bit of a wake-up call for astronomers, who only discovered the asteroid LZ1 this week.
This NASA radar image showing asteroid 2005 YU55 was obtained in 2011. The asteroid, said to be about the size of an aircraft carrier, came within 325,000 kilometres of Earth. (NASA)
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