Asteroid flies just kilometres above Antarctica, and no one knew it was coming

Earth narrowly missed an asteroid on October 1 as a huge space rock skimmed past us at a distance of 482 kilometres. The bigger worry is that scientists only saw it after it had already flown by, raising questions about humanity's preparations for planetary defence. Asteroid 2025 TF flew over Antarctica in the early hours of October 1. The 9.8-foot space rock was even closer than the International Space Station (ISS) is to Earth, too close for comfort. The asteroid was detected by the Catalina Sky Survey a few hours after it had already zoomed past our planet. While the delayed detection could be a cause for concern, experts say the asteroid wasn't hazardous. The European Space Agency (ESA) said that a rock of this size would have burned up in the atmosphere even if it crashed into Earth, leaving tiny chunks of meteorites. "They can produce fireballs if they strike Earth’s atmosphere, and may result in the discovery of small meteorites on the ground," the space agency said.

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Asteroid crossed the orbit of International Space Station

However, its path and distance could have posed a threat to satellites and the ISS. The asteroid crossed the orbit of the space station, and could have become a problem had the ISS been anywhere near the asteroid at the time of the flyby. Thankfully, such a scenario did not occur. ESA's Planetary Defence Office later observed asteroid 2025 TF using the Las Cumbres Observatory in Australia. This led them to learn about its size and that it had reached its closest point to Earth at exactly 01:47:26 BST (6:17 am). ESA said that "tracking down a metre-scale object in the vast darkness of space at a time when its location is still uncertain is an impressive feat."

NASA records asteroid over Antarctica

NASA classifies hazardous asteroids based on two parameters - size and distance. Any asteroid that is at least 460 feet big and comes at least 7.48 million km close to Earth can pose a threat to the planet. The American space agency, despite being in shutdown following a lack of funds, made a record of asteroid 2025 TF. According to the data, it will next return to Earth in 2087 and will be 5,971,946 km from the planet at its closest distance.