Amateur astronomers will have the opportunity to witness a rare cosmic event on Monday night as an asteroid approximately three times the size of McMahon Stadium will pass close to Earth.
Given its proximity to our planet, asteroid number 2004BL86 will be visible through binoculars. Its passing is expected to occur between 9:00 and 11:00 p.m. local time and its path will appear to move from south to north at a distance roughly 1.2 million kilometres above the Earth’s surface.
The asteroid and Earth were created 4.5 billion years ago and scientists believe there’s much to be learned from studying the surfaces of both.
“We're getting a window into the past history of our solar system and we're able to combine all these pieces of information to give us a better picture of what was going on between then and now,” said astrophysicist Devon Hamilton.
To view the asteroid, look east and locate Jupiter (the brightest light between the Big Dipper and Orion constellations). 2004BL86 will appear as a flash of light next to Jupiter.
