A rare 4 km-wide asteroid is approaching Earth, coming closer than it has in 100 years.

A very large and rare near-Earth asteroid known as (887) Alinda will come closer to Earth than it has in the past 100 years. In the coming days, it will be so close to our planet that it can even be seen with binoculars, reports IFLScience.

The near-Earth asteroid (887) Alinda was first discovered in 1918 by German astronomer Max Wolf. Near-Earth asteroids can vary greatly in size, ranging from hundreds of meters wide to very small ones measuring around 2 meters. However, space rocks wider than 1 kilometer make up a small percentage of the near-Earth asteroid population. Thus, the asteroid (887) Alinda, with a width of approximately 4.2 km, is considered a rare near-Earth object.

This object is one of the five largest asteroids that will approach Earth within a distance of less than 15 million km over the next 100 years.

(887) Alinda is not classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid and will not collide with Earth during its closest approach on January 9. It will be about 12 million km away from us, which is roughly 32 times the distance to the Moon.

At this distance, the asteroid will reflect a significant amount of sunlight, making it quite bright over the next 10 days. The Italian project Virtual Telescope will host a live stream on January 12 at 19:30 Kyiv time, allowing viewers to watch the asteroid's journey in real-time. On that day, (887) Alinda will appear at its brightest and will still be relatively close to Earth by cosmic standards.

It is believed that this asteroid can be observed in the night sky with binoculars in the coming days. To spot it, one should look towards the constellations Gemini and Orion. Such a bright, large, and relatively close asteroid can only be seen once a decade.

The next time asteroid (887) Alinda will be closest to Earth is on January 25, 2087, at a distance of approximately 24 million km.