{"id":730007,"date":"2026-06-27T22:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T22:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/730007\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T22:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T22:33:09","slug":"massive-asteroid-the-size-of-multiple-empire-state-buildings-will-zip-past-earth-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/730007\/","title":{"rendered":"Massive asteroid the size of multiple Empire State Buildings will zip past Earth this weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NEW YORK \u2014 A large <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/05\/14\/lifestyle\/potential-city-killer-asteroid-to-make-near-earth-approach\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">asteroid<\/a> will zip past Earth this weekend, but don\u2019t worry: It poses\u00a0no danger.<\/p>\n<p>The space rock \u2014 1997 NC1 \u2014 makes its\u00a0closest approach\u00a0Saturday morning, coming within 1.6 million miles (2.6 million kilometers), <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/06\/10\/us-news\/nasa-astronauts-on-moon-bound-artemis-iii-mission-have-california-ties\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">according to the European Space Agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Discovered nearly three decades ago by an asteroid-tracking system in Hawaii, the asteroid is between 2,461 feet (0.75 kilometers) and 5,413 feet (1.65 kilometers) wide \u2014 roughly the size of two to four Empire State Buildings.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.83512545;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39819000\" width=\"1024\" height=\"558\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/132487632.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of an asteroid near Earth in space.\" class=\"wp-image-39819000\"  \/>The space rock \u2014 1997 NC1 \u2014 makes its\u00a0closest approach\u00a0Saturday morning, coming within 1.6 million miles (2.6 million kilometers), according to the European Space Agency. dimazel \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.19766082;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39819002\" width=\"707\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/132487927.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of a large asteroid against a starry sky with a blue nebula.\" class=\"wp-image-39819002\"  \/>Discovered nearly three decades ago by an asteroid-tracking system in Hawaii, the asteroid is between 2,461 feet and 5,413 feet wide \u2014 roughly the size of two to four Empire State Buildings. vencav \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n<p>Skygazers with binoculars and small telescopes may be able to spot the asteroid as a small point of light passing harmlessly through the sky. <\/p>\n<p>It won\u2019t greet <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/29\/lifestyle\/nasa-astronaut-snaps-breathtaking-aurora-over-earth\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Earth<\/a> from such a distance again until 2133, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/06\/25\/lifestyle\/450m-space-shuttle-endeavour-center-opens-in-los-angeles-in-november\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NASA<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The last time an asteroid similar in size passed safely by Earth from an even closer distance was in 2022, when a space rock called 1994 PC1 made its approach.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/06\/09\/science\/nasa-reveals-crew-for-upcoming-artemis-iii-mission\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NASA<\/a>, ESA and other space agencies track the paths of asteroids and other space junk so they can keep Earth safe from any possible collisions. <\/p>\n<p>Last year, astronomers\u00a0tracked a smaller asteroid\u00a0resembling a spinning hockey puck and said there\u2019s no chance of it hitting Earth or the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/05\/26\/us-news\/nasa-boss-says-three-moon-based-missions-scheduled-for-2026-more-to-come\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">moon<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 A large asteroid will zip past Earth this weekend, but don\u2019t worry: It poses\u00a0no danger.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6949,6626,2300,718,79],"class_list":["post-730007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-asteroids","tag-astronomy","tag-earth","tag-nasa","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}