(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Asteroid big enough to wipe out a city to zip harmlessly between Earth and Moon this weekend [1]

['Daily Kos Staff', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']

Date: 2023-03-25

Asteroid 2023 DZ2 about 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) away from Earth on March 22, 2023.

An asteroid big enough to wipe out a city will zip harmlessly between Earth and the moon's orbit this weekend, missing both celestial bodies.

Saturday’s close encounter will offer astronomers the chance to study a space rock from just over 100,000 miles (168,000 kilometers) away. That’s less than half the distance from here to the moon, making it visible through binoculars and small telescopes.

While asteroid flybys are common, NASA said it’s rare for one so big to come so close — about once a decade. Scientists estimate its size somewhere between 130 feet and 300 feet (40 meters and 90 meters).

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/25/2160187/-Asteroid-big-enough-to-wipe-out-a-city-to-zip-harmlessly-between-Earth-and-Moon-this-weekend

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/