A large asteroid was this morning to safely zoom between Earth and the moon, a once-in-a-decade event that was to be used as a training exercise for planetary defense efforts, the European Space Agency (ESA) said.
The asteroid, named 2023 DZ2, is estimated to be 40m to 70m wide, about the size of the Parthenon, and big enough to wipe out a large city if it hit Earth.
At 3:49am Taiwan time, it was to come within one-third of the distance from the Earth to the moon, ESA Planetary Defence Office head Richard Moissl said.
Photo AFP / handout / EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY
Although that is “very close,” there is nothing to worry about, he said.
Small asteroids fly past every day, but one of this size coming so close to Earth only happens about once every 10 years, he added.
The asteroid was to pass 175,000km from Earth at a speed of 28,000kph. The moon is about 385,000km away.
An observatory in La Palma, one of Spain’s Canary Islands, first spotted the asteroid on Feb. 27.
Last week, the UN-endorsed International Asteroid Warning Network decided it would take advantage of the close look, carrying out a “rapid characterization” of 2023 DZ2, Moissl said.
That means astronomers around the world would analyze the asteroid with a range of instruments such as spectrometers and radars.
The goal is to find out just how much we can learn about such an asteroid in only a week, Moissl said.
It will also serve as training for how the network “would react to a threat” possibly heading toward Earth, he added.
Preliminary data suggested that 2023 DZ2 is “a scientifically interesting object,” indicating it could be a somewhat unusual type of asteroid, Moissl said, but added that more data were needed to determine the asteroid’s composition.
The asteroid is again to swing past Earth in 2026, but poses no threat of impact for at least the next 100 years — which is how far out its trajectory has been calculated.
Earlier this month a similarly sized asteroid, 2023 DW, was briefly given a one-in-432 chance of hitting Earth on Valentine’s Day 2046.
Further calculations ruled out any chance of an impact, which is what normally happens with newly discovered asteroids.
Moissl said that 2023 DW was now expected to miss Earth by about 4.3 million kilometers.
Last year, NASA’s DART spacecraft deliberately slammed into the pyramid-sized asteroid Dimorphos, significantly knocking it off course in the first such test of planetary defenses.
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