The cosmic body can be seen even with binoculars
An asteroid with a frightening nickname «City Killer» will pass between the Earth and the Moon without harming our planet. This rare close encounter with a celestial body will happen this weekend, when the space rock will be visible even with binoculars and small telescopes.
Large enough to wipe out an entire city, the asteroid will pass between the orbit of the Earth and the Moon this weekend, harming neither our planet nor its natural satellite, but giving scientists a chance to study the object up close.
As the Associated Press notes, asteroid flybys are common, but NASA says it is rare for such a large asteroid to fly this close to Earth and that such events occur about once a decade. Scientists estimate its size to be somewhere between 40 and 90 meters in diameter.
Discovered a month ago, an asteroid known as 2023 DZ2 will pass within 515,000 km of the Moon on Saturday US time and fly by in a few hours past the Earth at a speed of about 28 thousand km/h.
A close collision will give astronomers the opportunity to study the cosmic body from a distance of just over 68 thousand km. The asteroid, less than half the distance from here to the Moon, will be visible with binoculars and small telescopes, according to the Associated Press.
“There is no chance this city killer will hit Earth, but it will close approach provides an excellent observational opportunity,” said Richard Moissle, head of planetary defense at the European Space Agency, in a statement.
Astronomers from the International Asteroid Warning Network consider it good practice for planetary defense in the event that a dangerous asteroid is detected, which , according to NASA, may hit the Earth.
The Virtual Telescope Project will provide a live webcast of the rendezvous, according to the Associated Press.
The asteroid will not return to our side until 2026. Initially, it seemed that there was a small chance that the space object could collide with the Earth when it returned, but scientists have since ruled out such a possibility.