One of the five largest: a giant asteroid is heading for Earth

On January 12, the giant asteroid Alinda will be visible in the sky, flying at a record close distance from Earth over the past century. You can watch it with binoculars or a small telescope.

Asteroid (887) Alinda, with a diameter of 4.2 km, is one of the five largest space objects that will approach the Earth by less than 15 million kilometers from now until 2200. IflScience writes about it.

For the first time this month, it approached our planet on January 8 at a distance of 0.08220 AU (approximately 12.3 million km). Alinda will reach its maximum approach on the evening of January 12. Astronomers advise observing it from the northern hemisphere in the constellations Orion and Gemini. Despite its proximity by cosmic standards, the asteroid does not pose a threat to Earth. Its orbit does not cross the course of our planet. The distance to Alinda at the moment of approach will be more than 12 million kilometers, which is 32 times more than the average distance to the Moon.

The space object will remain clearly visible in the sky for another 10 days. The next time asteroid 887 will approach the Earth will be on January 25, 2087, but this time at a slightly greater distance - 0.16633 AU.

Earlier, other asteroids were reported to have approached our planet. For example, in September, the asteroid 2024 ON, the size of two football fields, flew past the Earth at a distance of about 1 million kilometers. Despite being classified as "potentially hazardous," it posed no threat.

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