News flash: While you were busy whiling your life away this past Saturday, Earth almost got smacked by a 7.6-metre bus-sized asteroid that zipped past us at a distance that was even closer than the Moon.

This is how the asteroid-Earth intersection looked like based on a video animation by Space.com:

The impact wouldn't have been powerful enough to result in us becoming like dinosaurs embarking on the march to mass extinction.

But it would have caused some major inconveniences, like the loss of a lot of lives and damage sustained by a lot of buildings, if it fell on a major city.

Travelling at approximately 20km per second, it can pack quite a punch.

No one knew it was coming

It was reported that the asteroid, called 2014 HL129, was only discovered on April 28, less than a week before its close shave with Earth.

One reason it was spotted so late could be because it is relatively small, as it measures barely 7.6 metres wide.

The asteroid came within 299,338 km (186,000 miles) of Earth at its closest approach on Saturday.

This was close enough to pass between our planet and the orbit of the moon. The average distance between the Earth and moon is about 384,400 km (238,855 miles).

However, we have been reassured that the asteroid posed no threat to our planet because it didn't get close enough. Although the odds of a city-wiping asteroid hitting Earth is once every 1,000 years or so.

What if an asteroid hit Singapore?

And if you are really curious about what happens if a bus-sized asteroid, in the unlikeliest event, lands on Singapore, you can check out this really cool site: Killer Asteroids - What if it hit my town.

In the website, you can basically type in any location, (for example, Singapore, Marina Boulevard), and pick the small killer asteroid, which coincidentally corresponds to the size of a bus, and see the extent of the damage it will cause:

Asteroid landing in Marina Boulevard

If a bus-sized asteroid lands on Marina Boulevard, the imapact of the damage extends out all the way to offshore island, Pulau Brani.

This will be Singapore as a post-financial hub.

And if the bus-sized asteroid landed on the Istana, for example:

Asteroid landing on Istana

Areas as far off as Nicoll Highway and Raffles Avenue will feel the shock waves and intense heat, while anywhere within the 1km-radius of ground zero will be squashed.

Yeah, science.