Building-sized asteroid will fly closer to Earth than the moon this weekend

23 March 2023 , 08:46

783     0

A building-sized asteroid will fly closer to Earth than the moon on Saturday. (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/SWNS)

An asteroid the size of a building is set to fly past the Earth this weekend.

Asteroid 2023 D72 was discovered on February 27, but it's making quite a stir in the astronomy world as it's moving right towards us.

The asteroid is roughly 40–95 meters (130–310 feet) in diameter and is classified as a near-Earth object of the Apollo group of asteroids.

However, according to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory data, it is thought to pose no risk to our planet after a potential 1-in-430 chance of collision in March next year was discounted.

If the worst had happened, it was estimated that an impact would produce an upper atmosphere air burst equivalent to 4.5 Mt TNT, roughly equal to 214 times the 'Fat Man' atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki.

Charming UK village is 'UFO hotspot' with 'NASA scientists showing interest'

Astronomers first spotted the space rock on 27 February (NASA/SWNS)

Saturday's approach could be visible to amateur astronomers, with modest telescopes and those equipped with an image sensor.

2023 DZ2 will pass at a distance of 174,645 ± 66 km (108,519 ± 41 miles) of Earth, which is a little less than half the distance to the Moon.

In January another asteroid was reported to enter the Earth's atmosphere.

Dubbed 2023 BU, the asteroid was estimated to travel roughly 6,500 miles past the centre of the Earth.

It was the fourth-nearest of 35,000 past and future Earth approaches, according to data collected by NASA 's Centre for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) for the 300 years from 1900 to 2200.

Florence Freeman