Nope, not today!

A giant asteroid almost hit Earth on September 16th, but because it came from the direction of the sun, scientists missed it!

Photo via Popular Mechanics

Oh no…

According to Esquire, some people heard a whooshing noise recently which apparently was from the gigantic asteroid that almost hit Earth that NASA didn’t see coming. 

The asteroid, given the name, 2021 SG has a diameter of around 42 to 94 m, with a diameter of around 68 m, which makes it around half the size of the great pyramids. That’s huge! 

Asteroid tracker, EarthSky has it listed for September 16th, but NASA only detected it a day later. So yes, we almost got hit by an asteroid that we didn’t even see coming because it was coming from the direction of the sun, a blind-spot for scientists. 

Almost ALL asteroids that are detected by NASA come from the other direction of the solar system, which is known as the “front” and very rarely do asteroids come from the “back” but it does happen. 

Because they are coming from the direction of the sun, they are very difficult to see due to the sun’s bright rays blocking scientists’ view. Quite literally, the sun was in their eyes… 

Will an asteroid ever hit Earth? There are no known #asteroid impact threats to Earth for the next century, but small meteoroids disintegrate in Earth’s atmosphere all the time!

Dr. Kelly Fast, one of our #PlanetaryDefense experts, tells us more: https://t.co/DdVoFv4n4w pic.twitter.com/W8ORMplFSd

— NASA Asteroid Watch (@AsteroidWatch) August 25, 2021

Scary, kan?!

By: Aishah Akashah Ahadiat