An asteroid hurtling towards Earth at eight miles per second was only spotted hours before it struck the atmosphere at a point between Crete and Libya, according to NASA.

The object, catalogued as 2008-TC3 and estimated to be up to five metres  across, streaked into view of astonished unsuspecting astronomers. And travelling at over 29,000mph, they didn't have much time to do the necessary calculations.
When the asteroid finally reached the atmosphere over the Mediterranean near Crete it created an enormous flash which was observed by the pilots of a KLM flight more than 750 miles away.
Incredibly, the orbiting Meteosat weather satellite captured images of 2008-TC3 exploding, which experts said had the energy of a two-kiloton nuclear warhead - the same as 2,000 tonnes of dynamite.
Had it burst on a populated area, the consequences would have been catastrophic.

Fortunately for the inhabitants of Planet Earth in general, and Crete in particular, nothing substantial reached the ground.