This asteroid traveled less than 2,950 kilometers above Earth in August 2020; it was not discovered until after it had already passed. This is closer than most satellites.
By passing about 5,500 kilometers from Earth's surface in 2011, this minor asteroid broke a record and illustrated how erratic space objects can be.
This 30-meter-wide asteroid approached the moon in March 2004 at a distance of 43,000 kilometers, giving scientists important new information about near-Earth objects.
2019 OK, a 100-meter-wide asteroid that escaped discovery until the very last minute, accelerated to a distance of only 70,000 kilometers in July 2019.
This 45-meter-wide asteroid nearly missed the Earth's satellite belt in 2013 by 27,700 kilometers, which served as a warning to space monitoring systems.
This asteroid approached Earth very closely in March 2016—its precise track was first unknown to scientists—at a distance of about 5 million kilometers.
An April 2021 event demonstrated how often close encounters can occur when a tiny 4-meter asteroid flew within 19,800 kilometers of Earth—closer than geostationary satellites.