One of the most dangerous asteroids on record zipped close by Earth last month . It made headlines on Thursday , when reports said that there 's a chance it could strike our planet in less than 20 years . Such a collision could unleash a force as powerful as a couple of thousand atomic bombs . But NASA was quick to calm nerves and point out some very good news . The most dangerous known asteroids do n't really pose much of a threat . And there are very few of them . Also , the chances that this one , which the Ukrainian astronomers who discovered it named 2013 TV135 , will collide with Earth are extremely slim , NASA said in a statement it called `` a reality check . '' The space agency is 99.998 % certain that when it whooshes back around the planet in 2032 , it will simply sail past us again . The probability of it striking Earth currently stands at 1:63,000 , and even those odds are fading fast , as scientists find out more about the asteroid . `` This is a relatively new discovery , '' said Don Yeomans , manager of NASA 's NEO Program . `` With more observations , I fully expect we will be able to significantly reduce , or rule out entirely , any impact probability for the foreseeable future . '' 2013 TV135 was discovered on October 8 , while NASA was closed during the government shutdown . And already it looks to soon be joining the ranks of the more than 10,000 known near-Earth objects that are virtually certain to cause us no harm . But until then , it has the distinction of having a danger rating of 1 out of a possible 10 on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale , the system that gauges the danger of impact destruction by asteroids . The 1 rating means that it poses `` no unusual level of danger . '' There is `` no cause for public attention or concern . '' Almost all other asteroids that scientists have discovered rank a 0 on the scale . There is another asteroid with a danger rating of 1 . And it , too , is no cause for alarm , NASA says . September 's close pass . The close pass 2013 TV135 made on September 16 was not a near miss . At a distance of 4.2 million miles as it flew by , it was more than 15 times as far away from Earth as the moon . That pales by compare to the closest shave the Earth got from an asteroid of considerable size in recorded history . On February 15 this year , asteroid 2012 DA14 , which measured 150 feet wide , slipped in below the moon 's orbit and squeaked by our planet just 17,200 miles from its surface . The one that passed by in September is big , with a diameter of 1,300 feet . That 's the size of four football fields , but it does not quite make it an Earth crusher . An asteroid needs to be at least twice as large to advance into that league . `` We believe anything larger than one to two kilometers ( about 0.6 to 1.2 miles ) could have worldwide effects , '' NASA said in a statement . Russian divers find huge suspected meteorite chunk . Near passes daily . Two behemoths in that size range will pass by planet Earth in the next three months at similar distances as 2013 TV135 . NASA says that neither will hit us . Near asteroid passes are common . They pretty much occur daily , if not two or three times a day , NASA says . They come , and they go , and they leave the Earth in peace . In addition , particles from space bombard our planet every minute -- at a rate of 100 tons a day , NASA says . You eat them ; you drink them ; you breathe them . Much of you and everything else on Earth contains them . Distant catastrophe . Though it seems Earth is safe for now , there is such a thing as a doomsday asteroid . Scientists say it is likely that the impact of an asteroid over six miles wide wiped out dinosaurs along with much of the life on Earth 65 million years ago . More like it will come , NASA says . But they only turn up once every `` few million years . '' That may give humanity some time to find a way of dealing with it . Follow @ CNNLightYears on Twitter for more science news updates .
In millions of years , a large asteroid passed close by our planet . The asteroid , 2013 2013 TV135 , was discovered millions of years . NEO Program says there is very little chance of it posing a threat to Earth . Someday a massive asteroid will wreak havoc on Earth , but that is likely millions of years away .