An asteroid will pass close to Earth on Saturday, but there is no risk of a collision. The European Space Agency (ESA) announced today that it will be visible with small telescopes or even large binoculars.
"A close pass of an object of this size near Earth only happens once every few years, although this time the bright and nearby Moon may prevent its observation at the moment when the asteroid will be closest," Juan Luis Cano of ESA's planetary protection office said in a statement.
This rocky space body, approximately 750 - 1650 meters in size, according to calculations based on the assessment of its albedo (the amount of sunlight it reflects), was discovered in 1997 and named (152637) 1997 NC1.
It will pass closest to Earth on Saturday at 1:14 p.m. (Albania time), at a speed of 8.9 kilometers/second. It will then be at a distance of 2,559,461 kilometers from our planet, or 6.66 times the Earth-Moon distance, which makes the chance of a collision zero.
The asteroid will be visible from the northern hemisphere during its approach phase, almost everywhere as it passes closer, and only from the southern hemisphere as it moves away from Earth.
In areas of the world where it will be night, it will theoretically be visible with small telescopes and even large binoculars. /LAPSI.al
