Poor crater! Huge asteroid gouged a massive hole

I BELIEVE the Earth was almost hit by an asteroid this week.

I realise lots of small asteroids must crash into our planet all the time, but which has left the largest hole? – E.

If you are reading this, the asteroid did pass safely by us this week!

Officially known as 2014-JO25 and roughly 650 metres across, the asteroid came within 1,800,000kms of us, less than five times the distance to the Moon.

The largest “hole” or crater, to be more exact, is in South Africa.

Vredefort Dome, 120km southwest of Johannesburg, is a representative part of a larger meteorite impact structure, or astrobleme.

Dating back 2,023 million years, it is the oldest astrobleme yet found, and with a radius of 190km, it is also the most deeply eroded.

Vredefort Dome bears witness to the world’s greatest known single energy release event, which had devastating global effects including, major evolutionary changes.