Two skyscraper-sized asteroids are approaching Earth this weekend, with one making its closest approach on Friday (July 29) and the second whizzing by on Saturday (July 30).
The first one an asteroidnamed 2016 CZ31, will fly by around 19:00 ET (23:00 GMT) on Friday, flying at approximately 34,560 mph (55,618 km/h, according to NASA (opens in new tab).
Astronomers estimate that the asteroid measures about 400 feet (122 meters) across at its widest point, making it as wide as a 40-story building. The asteroid will safely miss our planet, passing about 1,740,000 miles (2,800,000 kilometers) from The Earth — or more than seven times the average distance between Earth and moon. According to NASA, this space rock makes close approaches to Earth every few years, with the next one scheduled for January 2028.
Connected: Why do asteroids and comets have such strange shapes? (opens in new tab)
On Saturday, a second, increasingly large asteroid will pass by our planet, albeit at a greater distance from Earth. This asteroid, named 2013 CU83, measures approximately 600 feet (183 m) at its widest point and will pass about 4,320,000 miles (6,960,000 km) from Earth, or about 18 times the average distance between Earth and the moon.
This colossal space rock will be traveling at 13,153 mph (21,168 km/h) when it approaches Earth at 19:37 ET (23:37 GMT).
Both close encounters are significantly further than asteroid 2022 NF (opens in new tab), which is within 56,000 miles (90,000 km) — or about 23% of the average distance between Earth and the Moon — on July 7.
NASA and other space agencies closely monitor thousands of near-Earth objects like these. Even if the asteroid’s trajectory places it millions of miles from our planet, there is an extremely small chance that the asteroid’s orbit will shift slightly after an interaction with gravity of a larger object, such as a planet; even such a small displacement could potentially put an asteroid on a collision course with Earth on a future flyby.
As such, space agencies take planetary defense very seriously. In November 2021, NASA launched an asteroid-redirecting spacecraft called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) that will hit the 525-foot-wide (160 m) asteroid Dimorphos directly in autumn (opens in new tab) 2022. The collision will not destroy the asteroid, but it might changing the orbital path of the space rock (opens in new tab) slightly, Live Science previously reported. The mission will help test the viability of an asteroid deflection if any future asteroid poses an immediate threat to our planet.
Originally published on Live Science.
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