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A larger asteroid is expected to come comparatively close to Earth on Saturday evening. The celestial body will be only about 168,000 kilometres from our planet at its nearest point, according to the European Space Agency (ESA). The moon is more than twice that distance from Earth. The flyby can be observed with binoculars or a telescope.
While asteroids fly by Earth occasionally, Saturday night’s event is rare. The recently discovered celestial body, 2023 DZ2, is about 40 to 100 meters across. According to the U.S. space agency NASA, it happens only about once per decade that such a large asteroid passes close to Earth. There is no danger from the flyby, it said.
With its enormous size and speed of almost 28,000 kilometres per hour, the asteroid could theoretically wipe out an entire city on impact. It is, therefore, already called the “City Killer” in the English media. But the experts reassure: “It is impossible that this ‘city killer’ will hit the Earth, but its immediate approach offers a great opportunity for observations,” says ESA physicist Richard Moissl.
- source: kurier.at/picture: pixabay.com
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