The distance to the asteroid will be less than to the Moon.
On February 22, asteroid 2024 DW, approximately 13 meters long, will fly past Earth – NASA compares it to a bus. Although the asteroid will approach the planet at a short distance by cosmic standards, there is nothing to worry about.
According to NASA calculations, asteroid 2024 DW will fly at a distance of approximately 225 thousand kilometers from Earth. For comparison: the distance from the Earth to the Moon is approximately 385 thousand kilometers.
Large asteroids regularly fly past the Earth, but usually the distance between them and the planet is much greater. For example, on February 23, a 19-meter asteroid will fly relatively nearby, but this time it will be 3.5 million kilometers from the planet.
As NASA notes, asteroid 2024 DW is formally considered potentially dangerous: this is how all asteroids flying at a distance of up to 7.5 million kilometers from Earth are classified. But there is no risk of collision.
It is noteworthy that asteroid 2024 DW was discovered just a couple of days before its flyby of Earth: it was noticed on February 19. The fact is that monitoring systems cover only a very small percentage of the sky, and simply no one is monitoring the remaining sky.
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