A large, harmless asteroid will zip past Earth this weekend
NEW YORK (AP) – A large asteroid will hurtle past Earth this weekend, but don’t worry: no danger.
Space rock – 1997 NC1 – replaces closest approach It’s approaching 1.6 million miles (2.6 million kilometers) Saturday morning, according to the European Space Agency.
Discovered nearly three decades ago by an asteroid tracking system in Hawaii, the asteroid measures 2,461 feet (0.75 kilometers) to 5,413 feet (1.65 kilometers) wide; this is roughly the size of two to four Empire State Buildings.
Skywatchers with binoculars and small telescopes can see the asteroid as a small point of light passing harmlessly across the sky. According to NASA, it will not greet Earth from this distance again until 2133.
The last time a similarly sized asteroid passed safely past Earth at an even closer distance was in 2022, when a space rock called 1994 PC1 approached.
By tracking the paths of asteroids and other space debris, NASA, ESA and other space agencies can protect Earth from possible collisions. Last year astronomers followed a smaller asteroid He said it looked like a spinning hockey puck and it had no chance of hitting the Earth or the Moon.
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