Close fly-by of an asteroid at night to Sunday

The Astronomical Society Winterthur has reported a ‘close’ fly-by of an asteroid at the night to Sunday. The celestial body will fly past Earth at a respectable distance of well over five million kilometres.

“So there is no danger whatsoever for us,” said a media release on Saturday. The small body, which is about 1.2 kilometres in size and is accompanied by a moon, is unfortunately not visible from Europe, as it is moving in the constellation Puppis in Argo at that time, which is a deep south constellation.

The small near-Earth is, in fact, an old acquaintance: the asteroid (66391) 1999 KW4, discovered back in 1999.

Photo: The near-Earth small planet that will fly ‘close’ to the Earth at night on Sunday is the asteroid (66391) 1999 KW4, which was discovered back in 1999. (picture: Astronomical Society Winterthur)