An asteroid flying on Earth is so big that it has its own moon



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Buddy system

The Earth will not receive one but two visitors of space this weekend.

Astronomers expect that an asteroid known as 1999 KW4 will sweep the Earth around 7:05 pm. HE Saturday – and when it does, he will bring his own moon.

"This is one of the closest binary flybys probably in recent history," said global scientist Vishnu Reddy NBC News. "That's what makes it a very interesting target."

Dynamic Duo

The 1999 KW4 asteroid is 1.5 kilometers wide. It is about three times the size of its moon, which is about 0.5 km wide.

Even at their closest, the rocks of space will still be more than 3 million kilometers, so do not worry about their destruction by the Earth. In fact, they will not even come close enough to see the naked eye.

Still, they will not be so close to Earth until 2036. If you want to get a glimpse of the dynamic duo, be sure to prepare your telescope on Saturday night.

READ MORE: A multi-kilometer asteroid and its tiny moon will fly over the Earth this weekend[[[[NBC News]

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