Asteroid 2012 DA14 flied by the closest point to Erath, and it is now moving away from the planet. The 45-meter-diameter object reached the closest point on Friday at 11:25pm Armenia time. At the time, the asteroid was 27,700 kilometers away from Earth, and this is much closer than the man-made satellites’ orbit, which is approximately 35,000 kilometers.

Asteroid 2012 DA14, which was discovered last year by Spanish astronomers, weighed 130,000 tons, and its speed was 28,100 km/h, or 7.82 km/second, ITAR-TASS News Agency reports. 

It is known that such-size celestial objects approach Earth every forty years, but Asteroid 2012 DA14 made the closest fly-by ever. Had the asteroid collided with the planet, it would have caused destruction equivalent to a 2.5 megaton nuclear bomb explosion.