Asteroid 2024 MK to Safely Pass Between Earth and Moon This Saturday

A newly discovered asteroid, larger than the Great Pyramid of Giza, will pass between Earth and the moon on Saturday, June 29. The asteroid, named 2024 MK, poses no threat to our planet. At its closest approach, it will be about three-quarters of the distance from Earth to the moon, roughly 184,000 miles (295,000 kilometers) away.

Discovered two weeks ago, the skyscraper-sized asteroid measures about 480 feet (146 meters) across and will travel at approximately 21,000 mph (34,000 km/h). Despite its size, it poses no danger to Earth but is classified as a “potentially hazardous asteroid” by NASA due to its large size and orbit. After this weekend, 2024 MK will head back toward the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and won’t return until 2037, posing no threat then either.

NASA tracks over 35,000 near-Earth objects (NEOs), with none posing a threat to Earth for at least the next 100 years. This event follows the close approach of a much larger asteroid, 2011 UL21, which passed Earth at a safe distance of 4.1 million miles (6.6 million kilometers) just days earlier.