According to the European Space Agency, a large asteroid will pass safely between Earth and the moon on Saturday, a ten-year event that will be used as a drill for planetary conservation efforts.

The asteroid, named 2023 DZ2, is estimated to be 40 to 70 meters (130 to 230 feet) wide, about the size of the Parthenon, and large enough to destroy a major city if it hits our planet.

Richard Moisle, head of ESA’s planetary protection office, said at 19:49 GMT on Saturday it will approach one-third of the distance between Earth and the Moon.

He told AFP that although it was “very close” it was nothing to worry about.

Small asteroids fly by every day, but asteroids of this size only approach Earth once every 10 years, he added.

The asteroid will pass at a distance of 175,000 kilometers (109,000 miles) from Earth at a speed of 28,000 kilometers per hour (17,400 miles per hour). The moon is about 385,000 kilometers away.

The observatory in La Palma, one of Spain’s Canary Islands, first noticed the asteroid on February 27.

Moisl said last week that the UN-approved International Asteroid Warning Network decided to capitalize on the review and do a “quick characterization” of the 2023 DZ2.

This means astronomers around the world will analyze the asteroid using a range of instruments such as spectrometers and radars.

The goal is to see how much we can learn about such an asteroid in just one week, Moisl said.

He also added that the network will serve as a training course on “how to respond to a threat” that may come our way in the future.

“Scientifically interesting”

Moisl said preliminary data suggests 2023 DZ2 is a “scientifically interesting object”, suggesting it may be a somewhat unusual type of asteroid. But he added that more data is needed to determine the asteroid’s composition.

The asteroid will fly past Earth again in 2026, but it won’t pose a collision threat for at least the next 100 years – that’s how its orbit is calculated.

Earlier this month, 2023 DW, a similarly sized asteroid, had a one in 432 chance of hitting Earth on Valentine’s Day 2046.

But further calculations generally ruled out the possibility of any collisions occurring with recently discovered asteroids. Moisl said the 2023 DW is now expected to miss Earth by about 4.3 million kilometers. Even if such an asteroid has been determined to be heading towards us, Earth is no longer vulnerable.

Last year, NASA’s DART spacecraft deliberately crashed into the pyramid-sized asteroid Dimorphos and derailed it in the first such test to protect our planet.