Asteroid 'Florence' passes by just 4.4 million miles from Earth

A massive asteroid that is nearly 3 miles wide had a 'close encounter' with Earth today. Dubbed 'Florence' after Florence Nightingale, the huge space rock passed just 4.4 million miles from our planet which is about 18 times the distance between Earth and the moon.

According to NASA, this is the closest an asteroid of this size has come since it first began tracking near-Earth objects. For astronomers, the asteroid will was an unprecedented opportunity to study it up close through ground-based radar observations.

'Florence is the largest asteroid to pass by our planet this close since the NASA program to detect and track near-Earth asteroids began.'The asteroid, named for Florence Nightingale, was first spotted in 1981, and the flyby in September will be the closest it's come to Earth since 1890.

UCJ, UNILORIN.