Of these, 888 are more than a kilometer in diameter, two and a half times the length of the Empire State Building in New York.

But when was the last time an asteroid hit Earth?

According to Marina Brosovich, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the answer depends on your definition of an impact asteroid.

Small asteroids hit Earth almost all the time, Brozovich said of NASA’s “We asked a NASA scientist.” However, due to the small size of these asteroids, they burn up in the atmosphere, so many of them do not reach the Earth’s surface, which invalidates the remaining effect.

NASA classifies any asteroid as large as 140 meters or more close to the planet as a dangerous asteroid (PHA) because it can wreak havoc on Earth.

Asteroid imagery (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

The most important asteroid to hit Earth in the last century was the size of a small building that flew over Russia in 2013. The asteroid split only 20 km away. Above Earth, the Russian city of Chelyabinsk caused a number of meteorites to erupt.

But when was the last asteroid to have a huge impact on our planet and leave craters and wreak havoc?

“We have to go back to the past,” Brozovich said. “Finding these ancient craters is not easy.”

“So far it is full of debris or it may be at the bottom of the ocean,” she said.

However, even today, asteroids can pass through Earth without paying attention.

Aaron Reich participated in this report.