It turns out that our planet had an unannounced visitor last week, when asteroid 2020 LD whizzed past Earth at about 80 percent of the moon’s distance, EarthSky reports.
According to the media outlet, the asteroid, which measures some 122 meters in diameter, passed our planet at 97,890 km/h on 5 June, but was only spotted by astronomers two days later.
And while asteroids flying between Earth and the moon's orbit are not a particularly uncommon sight, it appears that 2020 LD is officially the largest asteroid to come within "one lunar-distance" of Earth since 2011.
The media outlet notes that while a space rock the size of the asteroid in question could cause considerable havoc if it were to strike our planet, 2020 LD is “nothing to worry about” as it's not expected to come as close to Earth as it did this time for many years to come.
