March 30 may have just been an ordinary Friday to most, but did you know that an asteroid passed near our Earth last Friday night? Well, it wasn't really near; the asteroid named 2006 W2 passed Earth last Friday about two million miles away. Can't picture two million miles? Well, let's just say that that's about nine times farther away than the Moon.

Although there was no danger of collision, that thing is huge! The asteroid is more than a mile wide and if it did hit Earth, it would have destroyed everything for hundreds of miles around. It would also most likely upset global commerce and create drastic climate change that Richard Branson's US$ 25 million contest couldn't fix. The rock directly passed Southern California at around 11 p.m. last Friday.

Astronomers have filed hundred of asteroids larger than a half-mile which sometimes passed by the Earth's orbit. One asteroid, Apophis, will pass very close to Earth in the year 2029 and has a minor chance of hitting our planet in 2036. We sure do hope that NASA and other space agencies have already concocted a solution for Earth-bound asteroids when that time comes.