An asteroid larger than 99% of near-Earth asteroids will pass Earth this week

Asteroid Day 2024 is coming up, commemorating the explosion of the largest observed asteroid as it struck the Earth above Tunguska in Siberia in 1908. The strike was a small rotation of the Earth away from devastating one of Europe’s more heavily popular regions, and the UN-endorsed day is a good reminder of just how powerful and deadly these iconic cosmic objects can be.

This year, though, as we come up on that fated day, the ESA has shared the news that two massive asteroids—including...