Big asteroid to fly by Earth on January 26, can be seen with strong binoculars

Washington, Jan 24: Planet Earth is set to have a close encounter with a big asteroid but American space agency NASA said there is nothing to worry about it.

The asteroid, named 2004BL86, will come 1.2 million kilometres close to the Earth at 9.49 pm IST on Monday, January 26.

2004BL86 is a huge asteroid with a third of a mile in size. It will be this big an asteroid that will go pass near the Earth till August 2027 when 1999 AN10 will come close to our planet.

Another specialty with the asteroid passing near the Earth is that it could be seen with strong binoculars or backyard telescopes.

NASA scientists will take radar-generated images through the Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California, USA, and the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

2004 BL86 was discovered on January 30, 2004, by a telescope of the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) survey in New Mexico.

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