Barely two weeks after asteroid 2023 EY’s close flyby of Earth on March 17, another space rock is preparing to graze our planet on March 25, passing once again within the distance separating Earth from Moon: this time it’s the asteroid 2023 DZ2which will reach a minimum distance of about 168,000 km from the earth’s surface, i.e. less than half the distance between our planet and its satellite, but in any case completely safe.
Closest approach to Earth is expected at 20.52 Italian time on 25 Marchor, but the new visitor will continue to be visible even in the following hours. To be able to observe the asteroid, visiile in the northern hemisphere, need a telescope at least 15 centimeters in diameter: 2023 DZ2 will appear as a slowly moving star above the southeastern horizon, east of the constellations Orion and Canis Major and Minor.
It will also be possible to observe it live, thanks to the event organized by the Virtual Telescope, which will also be broadcast online on ANSA Scienza starting at 00.30 in the night between 25 and 26 March.
The asteroid 2023 DZ2 has an estimated diameter between 40 and 100 meters, at least three times greater than the one that exploded in 2013 over Chelyabinsk and travels at a speed of about 28 thousand kilometers per hour.
The first observation of this asteroid occurred at February 2023, thanks to the La Palma Observatory in the Canary Islands. Initially, it appeared that 2023 DZ2 would have a one in 430 chance of hitting Earth on its next pass, in 2026, since it makes one full orbit around the Sun in just over three years. But later calculations, based on more accurate data, eliminated even this remote possibility, as observed by the European Space Agency (ESA) on Twitter.
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