After an asteroid the size of an SUV passed 1,830 miles (2,950 kilometres) above it, the Earth avoided a doomsday making it the closest asteroid ever observed to pass by our planet, NASA said on Tuesday.

In a statement, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said that if it had been on a collision course with Earth, the asteroid — named 2020 QG — probably would not have caused any damage, instead disintegrating into the atmosphere , creating a fireball in the sky, or a meteor.

On Sunday at 0408 GMT the asteroid, which was about 10 to 20 feet (three to six metres ) long, passed over the southern Indian Ocean.