In a newly released set of images captured by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, Comet 252P/LINEAR can be seen whizzing past Earth making this one of the closest encounters between a comet and our planet. A close encounter in space terms isn't really like we picture it in our heads. The comet passed us just within 3.3 million miles or 5.2 million kilometres, 14 times the distance between Earth and the moon. A comet passing by from such a distance is a rarity, this one was officially "one of the closest encounters between a comet and our planet." It was also "the closest celestial object Hubble has ever observed, other than the moon," said the Space Telescope Science Institute officials said in an image description.