“Close,” of course, is relative. The asteroid, called 2004 BL86 will come about 745,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) from Earth, or about three times as far away as the moon at 11:19 a.m. ET, according to NASA.
In other words, far enough that it does not pose a threat to Earth, but close enough to give scientists and amateurs a chance to observe a large asteroid up close.
Asteroid 2004 BL86 is big — about a third of a mile (a half-kilometer) in size. It will be the closest known asteroid this large to pass near Earth until 2027, when an asteroid called 1999 AN10 flies by.
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The asteroid was discovered on January 30, 2004, by a telescope of the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research survey in White Sands, New Mexico.
Want to know more about asteroids? Check out NASA’s asteroid watch program or follow it on Twitter.
