Asteroid (887) Alinda will be visible in the night sky on Sunday. Although the object is too dark to be seen with the naked eye, it is worth arming yourself with binoculars – such large rocks rarely venture so close to the Earth.
As reported by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory NASAon Wednesday, asteroid (887) Alinda passed within just 12.3 million kilometers of Earth. Although the object is slowly moving away from us, it is still visible in the sky, and the best opportunity to observe it will be on Sunday.
How to observe an asteroid?
According to in-the-sky.org, Alinda will be visible in the Northern Hemisphere from sunset almost until dawn. An object with a magnitude of 9.4 will appear against the background of the constellation Gemini, and will pass highest in the sky around 11 p.m. Central European time. The relatively faint brightness means we won't see the asteroid with the naked eye, but it should be visible with binoculars or a telescope.
– A similar event occurs on average once every decade, said astronomer Gianluca Masi from The Virtual Telescope Project in an interview with Forbes.
(887) Alinda was first observed in 1918. The space rock has a diameter of 4.2 kilometers – it is one of the largest objects that comes so close to our planet. It is worth taking the opportunity to look at the sky on Sunday, because once again the asteroid will fly so close to the Earth only in 2087.
LiveScience, Forbes, in-the-sky.org
Main photo source: Shutterstock (illustrative photo)