What's National Near Miss Day, you ask? Well, on this day in 1989, an asteroid almost hit Earth! The asteroid itself is about half a mile across, and was traveling almost 50,000 mph.
Named 4581 Asclepius, it passed within 425,000 miles of Earth. That's almost twice the distance of the radius of the Moon's orbit around Earth. But, the asteroid passed through the exact point where Earth was just six hours earlier. A lucky day for Earth indeed, and certainly a close call.
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