An asteroid called 2010RF12 could potentially hit Earth much sooner in the year 2095 and has the highest chance of all the asteroids on the table, with a one in 16 prediciton. It won't hit; however there is a slight chance that this close pass will shift its orbit exactly the right amount to cause it to hit Earth … @pgbrown has more graphics. The largest asteroid ever recorded has passed Earth at a distance of 145 million miles, giving scientists the opportunity to learn more about its physical characteristics. Michael Anissimov Last Modified Date: 26 June 2020 . On the other end of the scale, the smallest asteroid ever studied is the 6-foot-wide (2 meters) space rock 2015 TC25, which was observed when it made a close flyby of Earth in October 2015. [14] Objects smaller than meteoroids are classified as micrometeoroids and cosmic dust. Apophis is an asteroid about 270 meters across (almost three football fields). 26 atom-bomb-scale asteroid impacts since 2000.

We’re going to assume that the level of damage that you are referring to is similar to previous extinction events that is estimated to have wiped out the dinosaurs. Smallest known asteroid characterized using Earth-based telescopes by University of Arizona Small near-Earth asteroids are important targets of study because not much is known about them. The largest asteroid ever to hit Earth was probably Theia, a Mars-sized body that formed over 4 billion years ago, during the early days of the solar system. Read more: Whoa! Earth got hit a few days ago by newly-discovered asteroid 2019 MO. In 2029 it will pass very close to the Earth: within the orbits of our communication satellites. Theia formed in a Lagrange point, a gravitationally stable region in the Earth's orbit, located on the opposite side of the Sun. The smallest asteroid ever discovered (based on absolute magnitude) is 2008 TS26 with an absolute magnitude of 33.2,[13] and an estimated size of 1-meter.