Tonight: A large asteroid passes very close to Earth
Last Friday, the European Space Agency announced the passage of a large asteroid between the Earth and the Moon today, Saturday, and indicated that this rare event, which occurs once every 10 years, does not constitute a danger and will train planetary defense techniques.
The asteroid, called “2023 DZ2”, is estimated to be between 40 and 70 meters in diameter, and this size is sufficient to destroy a large city in the event of a collision with the Earth.
The Planetary Defense Coordination Office of the US Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) wrote on Twitter that such a flyby “occurs only once per decade,” adding that the asteroid’s path passes “safely” through Earth.
At its closest point to Earth, expected at 19:50 GMT today, Saturday, the asteroid will be about 168,000 km away, according to the European Space Agency. In comparison, the Moon is 384,400 km from Earth.
The asteroid can be spotted using binoculars or a telescope if the sky is clear. The head of planetary defense at the European Space Agency, Richard Moisel, said that there is no chance of this asteroid colliding with Earth, “but its close approach provides a great opportunity for observation.”
And the authority put the chance that the asteroid would hit the Earth during the next century at zero. The US Space Science Agency (NASA) believes that this is an important opportunity that may enable space scientists to increase their knowledge of asteroids, because it represents the discovery of a dangerous body that may collide with the Earth.