On December 24, 2001, an asteroid passed very close to Earth. The asteroid was large enough to destroy an area the size of France. Scientists had just potted the asteroid a few days earlier, which wasn’t much of a warning! The asteroid passed within 520,000 miles of Earth, which is only twice the distance from the Earth to the moon. In astronomical terms, that’s a very, very close call.

The asteroid was dubbed 2001 YB5. The asteroid was estimated to be about 1,000 feet across and was traveling about 68,000 miles per hour when it hurtled past Earth toward the sun.