A rare celestial coincidence has two rugged asteroids — one large enough to destroy cities, the other large enough to wipe out the planet — zipping past Earth, close enough to excite observers but posing no risk of impact.
Asteroids in our neighborhood are always intriguing, but these two are special because of their timing, size and orbit.
Their separate visits 42 hours difference And again by coincidence, this year Asteroid DayThis is an annual event in Russia. Tunguska meteorite incident In 1908, the largest asteroid impact in modern history occurred.
read more: When was the asteroid discovered?
Although their orbits are thought to be close to ours astronomically, neither was visible to the naked eye.
When will the asteroid pass by Earth?
One of them has already come and gone. Asteroid (415029) 2011 UL21A chunk of rock the size of Mount Everest made its closest approach to Earth without incident on Thursday.
Second, Asteroid 2024 MKarriving Saturday morning.
Although 2024 MK is much smaller than its companion, at between 400 and 850 feet long, it will come very close to Earth, passing between the Moon and Earth at a distance of about 180,200 miles. The Moon is 238,900 miles from Earth.
2011 UL21, although larger, never came closer than 4.1 million miles from Earth.
How do asteroids compare in size?
NASA successfully crashes DART into asteroid Dimorphos for planetary defense test
NASA has successfully crashed its Double Asteroid Redirect Test spacecraft into the asteroid Dimorphos in its first planetary defense test.
2024 MK is roughly the same size as the asteroid Dimorphos that NASA used in its first successful planetary defense test nearly two years ago, when the space agency crashed a 1,260-pound NASA spacecraft into Dimorphos, 7 million miles away, changing its orbit by 32 minutes.
Where can you see asteroid 2024 MK?
An asteroid may be visible on Saturday Telescope or powerful binocularsSmithsonian magazine says people in Hawaii and South America will have the best chance of seeing it, and it may also be visible from the southern continental U.S. The asteroid will make its closest approach at 9:46 a.m. Eastern time. Saturday Night After the sun goes down.
Contributor: Cybel Mays Osterman
Sources: USA TODAY Network reporting and investigations, NASA, European Space Agency, earthsky.org, asteroidday.org, space.com, Reuters, sciencealert.com