Asteroid to pass between Earth and Moon's orbit over weekend
An asteroid discovered just last week will pass closer to the Earth than the orbit of the moon this weekend, an occurrence so rare it happens only once in a decade, according to NASA.
The asteroid, called 2023 DZ2, will pass closest to the Earth on Saturday at just 108,757 miles away, less than half the distance to the moon (238,606 miles).
It was discovered last Thursday by astronomers at an observatory site at the Canary Islands, off the northwestern coast of Africa.
The asteroid is around 131 feet to 295 feet in diameter, meaning its size ranges from slightly smaller than Arc de Triomphe in Paris to as tall as the Statue of Liberty in New York.
The NASA Asteroid Watch Twitter account flagged the asteroid's approach, adding that it will pass us by safely.
"Astronomers with the International Asteroid Warning Network are using this close approach to learn as much as possible about 2023 DZ2 in a short time period - good practice for #PlanetaryDefense in the future if a potential asteroid threat were ever discovered," the tweet stated.
The asteroid will pass closest to the Earth shortly before 4 p.m., according to current estimates, but EarthSky.com advises amateur astronomers hoping to catch a glimpse of the asteroid with a telescope should look early in the night on Friday.
Asteroids whiz by Earth all the time, but it's rare for one of this size to pass so closely. Most asteroids logged as "close approaches" to Earth by the Centre for Near Earth Object Studies are either much smaller or passing much farther away, as it is still classified as a near-Earth object (NEO) if it passes by within 0.2 astronomical unit, or more than 29 million kilometers away.
The next time an asteroid will pass by the Earth closer than the distance to the moon is in 2026 when an asteroid first discovered in 2013 will zip by.
In 2028, we'll receive a close visit from 2001 WN5, an asteroid around the size of the Golden Gate Bridge, which last passed us in 2019. Its upcoming visit will see it pass by at just 154,306 miles away
And in 2029, the famous Apophis asteroid-named after the Greek term for an Egyptian god of chaos-will hurtle by at just 22,990 miles, an incredibly rare occurrence that should be visible to the naked eye from Earth.
Although Apophis has raised eyebrows for years, a distant flyby of Earth in 2021 allowed astronomers to confirm that it wouldn't pose any impact threat to Earth within the next century.