Massive asteroid flies past Earth 4.1million miles away

Asteroids are rocky objects that orbit the Sun

Space experts were excited after a massive asteroid flew past Earth on Friday morning.

Asteroid 2015 DR215 had made it onto Nasa's 'close approach' list but don't worry, it was a safe distance away!

It was thought to have passed Earth at a distance of 4.1 million miles away so it would have been no danger to us!

The asteroid was around 1,600 feet wide, which is three times larger than the Great Pyramid in Egypt.

What are asteroids?

Asteroids are giant space rocks in our solar system that orbit the Sun.

Sometimes they are called NEOs - Near Earth Objects.

The last big asteroid to actually hit Earth was 66 million years ago - the one that caused the dinosaurs to become extinct - but roughly some 26,000 have skimmed past Earth since 1990, according to NASA's Centre for Near Earth Object Studies.

There are lots of asteroids that Nasa constantly monitors which are 140 meters or larger and are classed as hazardous.

However, the chances of them hitting Earth are still very small.

How often do asteroids fly past Earth?

The simple answer is all the time.

Smaller asteroids strike the Earth almost all the time but due to their much smaller size, they get burnt up in the atmosphere before they hit ground

But there are no asteroids in existence that currently pose a threat to Earth, but Nasa are getting ready just in case.

They even have a mission in space at the moment called DART - which aims to try out diverting an asteroid by crashing into it!.

Other small asteroids a few metres in size are detected passing between Earth and the Moon's orbit several times a month.

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