Asteroid to be visible to stargazers on Saturday

A large asteroid that will zoom harmlessly past Earth on Saturday will be visible to stargazers using a small telescope or large binoculars, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).

The asteroid will come within 2,560,000 kilometres of Earth at around 12.15am Irish time on Saturday, which is more than six times the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

The asteroid, named (152637) 1997 NC1, will travel at nearly nine kilometres per second and poses no threat to Earth as any chance of an impact has been ruled out.

Discovered in 1997, the asteroid is estimated to be between 750 and 1,650 metres wide, according to calculations based on how much sunlight it reflects.

"A close approach to Earth by an object this size only occurs every few years, although this time the bright nearby Moon might impede its observability at closest approach," Juan Luis Cano of the ESA's Planetary Defence Office said in a statement.

The asteroid will be visible in parts of the Northern Hemisphere as it approaches, almost everywhere as it moves past Earth, and only from the Southern Hemisphere as it departs.

Visibility of the asteroid will depend on whether the sky is dark enough as it passes by.