A near-Earth asteroid with about the same diameter as The National Mall in Washington D.C. had a relatively close encounter with Earth on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2024, according to scientists.
It was a perfectly safe flyby at 7.6 million miles (12.3 million kilometers) -- 32 times the Earth-moon distance -- but for such a large object to come so close to Earth is rare. "A similar event happens on average once a decade," said astronomer Gianluca Masi at The Virtual Telescope Project, in an email.
Called (887) Alinda, the near-Earth asteroid is one of the five largest destined to get closer to Earth than 9.3 million miles (15 million kilometers) by the year 2200, according to Masi.
Currently shining at 9.7 magnitude (887), Alinda is not bright enough to see with the naked eye but can be seen using binoculars from the Northern Hemisphere.
It will reach 9.4 magnitude on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2024, the brightest it will get during the 10 days of its flyby. The Virtual Telescope Project will host an online observation on Jan. 12, beginning at 17:30 UTC (12:30 p.m. EST).
(887) Alinda can be seen -- using 10x50 binoculars -- moving through the constellation Gemini, which is visible immediately after dark. It's visible all night, according to In-The-Sky.
The most versatile binoculars for stargazing and astronomy are 10x50, which have the ideal balance between magnification (power), aperture (the amount of light they collect) and weight. They feature 10x magnification for a wide field of view and 50 mm diameter objective lenses that let in enough light at night.
(887) Alinda orbits the sun almost four times slower than Earth, taking 3.8 Earth-years, according to the European Space Agency. It was first discovered in 1918. As a consequence, its name is used to describe any asteroid that orbits the sun every four years or so. Alinda asteroids spend most of their time in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and rarely approach a planet closely.
The next time (887) Alinda will close relatively close to Earth will be in 2087.
Comet ATLAS (C/2024 G3) will be best seen on Monday, Jan. 13, but it gets closest to the sun but will mainly be visible only from the Southern Hemisphere. It could outshine the planet Venus, according to SpaceWeather.com, though there's a good chance it will disintegrate as it passes just 8.3 million miles (13.5 million kilometers) from our star.
Comet ATLAS G3 is a long-period comet from the Oort Cloud, a sphere of comets around the solar system. It orbits the sun every 160,000 years. It was discovered on Apr. 5, 2024, by the ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) network of telescopes.
Also, on Jan. 13, January's "Wolf Moon" will turn full. However, the best time to watch it rise will be moonrise where you are on Tuesday, Jan. 14.
The best time to see a near-full moon occult Mars -- a rare sight that will occur high in the sky and be visible across North America -- will be between 8:44 p.m. EST on Monday, Jan. 13 and 00:52 a.m. EST on Tuesday, Jan. 14.