The US space agency NASA revealed that an asteroid the size of the famous Big Ben clock tower in the British capital, London, is approaching, 173,000 km from Earth, on Saturday, and it will be twice as close to the moon, which orbits at a distance of 384,400 km.
The diameter of the asteroid, which was called “2023 DZ2”, is estimated to be 93 metres, the height of the Big Ben clock tower is 96 meters, and its maximum possible diameter is 96 meters, and scientists claim that it could be as small as 41 meters.
It is estimated that it will approach Earth at 19:51 GMT, at a speed of 28,044 km / h, and its approach can be seen through a live broadcast hosted by the Virtual Telescope Project, which will start at 23:30 GMT on Saturday night.
NASA says: “The passage of an object of this size near Earth occurs once every 10 years.”
It is not known exactly where this asteroid appeared from, because most near-Earth asteroids originate from the main asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars.
Experts said that it is also three times as large as the Chelyabinsk asteroid that struck Russia in 2013, which sent a shockwave twice around the globe.