Both rocks will pass well beyond the moon's orbit.
Two skyscraper-size asteroids are zooming toward Earth this weekend, with one making its closest approach on Friday and the second whizzing by on Saturday .
The first asteroid, dubbed 2016 CZ31, will fly by around 7 p.m. ET on Friday, whizzing at an estimated 34,560 mph across at its widest point, making it about as wide as a 40-story building is tall. The asteroid will safely miss our planet, passing about 1,740,000 miles out from Earth — or more than seven times the average distance between Earth and the moon. According to NASA, this space rock makes close approaches to Earth every few years, with the next one scheduled for January 2028.
As such, space agencies take planetary defense very seriously. In November 2021, NASA launched an asteroid-deflecting spacecraft called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test , which will slam directly into the 525-foot-wide asteroid Dimorphos in autumn 2022. The collision won't destroy the asteroid, but it may change the space rock's orbital path slightly, Live Science previously reported.
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
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