Asteroids' Close Encounters with Earth: Recent Videos and Observations.

Astronomers at an observatory in Italy recorded a time-lapse video of a large asteroid, called 2023 DZ2 by NASA, as it passed by Earth last week. Although the asteroid did not pose any threat to Earth, it passed the planet at quite a close range, slightly less than half the average distance between the Earth and moon's respective orbits. The asteroid measured between 140 feet and 310 feet long, and the time-lapse video shows it becoming brighter over the course of just two minutes. The Virtual Telescope Project, an initiative from the Italian astrophysicist and astronomer Gianluca Masi and the Bellatrix Astronomical Observatory, created the video using robotic telescopes to observe space objects and cosmic events.