“On Wednesday afternoon, 2011-CA7, an asteroid the size of a Volkswagen, will shoot past the Earth so close that it will be lower than some satellites. The probability of impact is microscopic. If the orbital elements of the asteroid are a tiny bit off, though, and it does hit us, the rock is expected to break apart high in the atmosphere with the pieces harmlessly burning up.

If the rock manages to remain intact down into the lower atmosphere, and then breaks apart, it could flash off all at once like the rock that blew down an estimated 80 million trees in the Tunguska, Siberia forest in wide asteroid zipped past only at 11,855 KM, Your TV satellite is about three times farther out in space.

The Earth has been hit thousands of times in the past by large asteroids. It is believed the dinosaurs met their demise when one hit what became the Gulf of Mexico. Asteroid Apophis, will certainly come close as it passes by in 2029 and 2036. But how close? Estimates range from a near-miss at 18,000 miles to a bull’s-eye hit. The energy available from a 300 meter 90 stories tall, 25 million ton chunk of flying rock is like the dinosaur ending event.

Professor Lenoid Sokolov of the St. Petersburg State University is the first to suggest that Apophis may pass through just the exact-right spot in space, called a gravitational keyhole, to perturb the 2029 pass enough to cause the 2036 pass to hit Earth. Thanks to Tom Carol and NASA.

AN ASTEROID the size of a car has zipped past Earth. Scientists say is the closest flyby on record.

NASA has admitted it didn’t see the space rock coming ahead of a near-miss on Sunday that took it within 1,830 miles (2,950km) of our planet.

That’s more than 130 times closer to Earth than the Moon (230,000 miles), or less than the distance between Los Angeles and New York City (2,400 miles).

“The asteroid approached undetected from the direction of the Sun,” Nasa’s Dr Paul Chodas told Business Insider. “We didn’t see it coming.”

The Palomar Observatory in California first detected the rock, now known as 2020 QG, six hours after it flew over the southern Indian Ocean at 5:08am BST (12:08am ET) on August 16.

At between 6 feet (2m) and 18 feet (5.5m) wide – a little larger than the average sedan – the object posed no threat to Earth.