A large asteroid will zip past Earth this weekend, but it poses no danger, according to space agencies.
The space rock — designated 1997 NC1 — will make its closest approach Saturday morning, coming within 1.6 million miles (2.6 million kilometers) of Earth, the European Space Agency said. That distance is more than six times the average distance between Earth and the moon.
Discovered nearly three decades ago by an asteroid-tracking system in Hawaii, 1997 NC1 measures between 2,461 feet (0.75 kilometer) and 5,413 feet (1.65 kilometers) wide — roughly the size of two to four Empire State Buildings stacked end to end.
Despite its size, the asteroid will remain far enough from Earth that it poses no threat. The ESA and NASA routinely track near-Earth objects, cataloging their orbits to identify any that could potentially collide with the planet.
For amateur astronomers, the flyby offers a viewing opportunity. Skygazers with binoculars or small telescopes may be able to spot the asteroid as a small point of light moving across the sky, according to the ESA. The asteroid’s brightness will be relatively faint, making it more challenging to see in areas with light pollution.
The asteroid will not come this close to Earth again until 2133, according to NASA. That means this weekend’s encounter is the closest approach for more than a century.
A similar event occurred in 2022, when an asteroid comparable in size — 1994 PC1 — passed safely by Earth at an even closer distance. Like this weekend’s flyby, that object posed no danger.
The 1997 NC1 flyby is the latest of several notable space‑rock events this year. In March, a seven‑ton meteor broke apart over Cleveland, producing a sonic boom reported from Wisconsin to Maryland, and in May a small meteor over Massachusetts released energy equivalent to 300 tons of TNT before fragments fell into Cape Cod Bay.