Last year, for a tense week in January, astronomers believed a newly discovered asteroid might be on a collision course with Earth in 2023, posing a risk level higher than had been seen in a decade. 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. Numerous agencies have their eyes trained on the sky to keep an eye out for asteroids and other space objects that might pose a collision threat to the Earth. Its upcoming visit will see it pass by at just 248,332 kilometres awayĪnd in 2029, the famous Apophis asteroid-named after the Greek term for an Egyptian god of chaos-will hurtle by at just 37,000 kilometres away, an incredibly rare occurrence that should be visible to the naked eye from Earth. In 2028, we’ll receive a close visit from 2001 WN5, an asteroid around the size of the Golden Gate Bridge at 0.93 kilometres in diameter, which last passed us in 2019. 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 around 15-33 metres in diameter will zip by. 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 kilometres away. EDT, according to current estimates, but advises amateur astronomers hoping to catch a glimpse of the asteroid with a telescope should look early in the night on Friday.Īsteroids whiz by Earth all the time, but it’s rare for one of this size to pass so closely. The asteroid will pass closest to the Earth shortly before 4 p.m. “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 NASA Asteroid Watch Twitter account flagged the asteroid’s approach, adding that it will pass us by safely. While close approaches are a regular occurrence, one by an asteroid of this size (140-310 ft) happens only about once per decade, providing a unique opportunity for science. A newly discovered #asteroid named 2023 DZ2 will safely pass by Earth on Saturday at 100K+ miles away.
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