'City killer' asteroid comes closer than Moon, Earth remains unharmed

An asteroid, which was huge enough to destroy a city, silently made its way from between the orbits of the Earth and the Moon, missing both the planet and its satellite.

The scientists discovered the space rock, named 2023 DZ2, a month ago.

As predicted by astronomers, the asteroid flew past the Earth from a distance of 175,000km on Saturday after passing across the Moon.

This is one rare occasion when such a massive asteroid – which has been estimated to be between 40 and 90 m in diameter – passes from such a close distance to the planet.

The event has been described by astronomers as a once-in-a-decade event.

As per NASA, the event became an important opportunity for scientists and astronomers to expand their knowledge of asteroids, at a time when another space rock was discovered which was carrying the potential to hit Earth.

"There is no chance of this 'city killer' striking Earth, but its close approach offers a great opportunity for observations," European Space Agency's planetary defence chief Richard Moissl said.

Moissl added that, according to the preliminary data, 2023 DZ2 was "a scientifically interesting object". However, he added that they needed more data to determine the composition of the asteroid.

Since the asteroid passed so close to the Earth, it was visible through small telescopes and binoculars across the globe.

The Virtual Telescope Project provided a live web broadcast of the asteroid's approach.

The space rock is likely to return towards the orbit of Earth in 2026, however, scientists have ruled out any threat to Earth even during its return.

Earlier an asteroid of similar size named, 2023 DW, was predicted to have a one-in-432 chance of crashing on Earth's surface on Valentine's Day 2046.

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Moissl said that 2023 DW is likely to miss Earth by around 4.3 million km. However, even if such a massive asteroid is heading towards the Earth, the planet is no longer defenceless.

In 2022, a pyramid-sized asteroid Dimorphos was deliberately slammed by NASA's Dart (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft.

Before the impact of Dart, Dimorphos took 11 hours and 55 minutes to orbit around Didymos, its larger parent asteroid.

(With inputs from agencies)

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