A huge asteroid that narrowly missed the Earth last Monday was so massive it had its own moon, says NASA.

Asteroid 2004 BL86 measures about half a kilometer in length and zoomed by Earth from a distance of 1.2 million kilometers away, or about three times as far as the moon is from our planet. The asteroid was also seen by amateur astronomers that took photos of the flyby.

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NASA's powerful telescopes, however, revealed this particular asteroid has its own satellite that measures just 70 meters across.

Asteroid 2004 BL86 won't pass by the solar system in the next 200 years but scientists are aware there are seven more massive asteroids that will pass relatively close to the Earth.

In 2027, another large asteroid called the 1999 AN10 will streak through the solar system at just one lunar distance away from our planet. This asteroid measures some 792 meters to 1,772 meters in diameter.

Its incredibly close flyby might lead to a possible collision similar to worldwide destruction that led to the mass extinction of dinosaurs some 65 million years ago.

According to NASA, there's a small chance asteroid 1999 AN10 will hit the planet on its next orbit in 2046. NASA confirms the probability is about one in 500,000 in 2044 and one in five million in 2046.

There is still less than one hundredth the chance that a stray asteroid the size of Earth can strike the planet anytime before 2044.

To date, NASA is observing and monitoring some 11,000 known asteroids large enough to cause significant damage and destruction to the Earth. The U.S. space agency admits they only know of 98 percent of the total asteroids passing by the Earth.

Asteroids carry the building blocks of life as they are remnants of early galactic collisions that formed the solar system. Scientists claim asteroids can also be mined for special minerals and can also be a new source of energy.

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