Big asteroid to fly by Earth on Monday

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga, Philippines – An asteroid discovered in 2004 will soar past Earth later this month, the closest it can get to the planet for the next 200 years.

Dario de la Cruz, chief of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration’s space science and astronomy section, said Tuesday the space rock code-named 2004 BL86 is expected to be 1,198,705 kilometers from Earth, which is about three times the distance from the earth to the moon.

“That seems to be far but astronomically, that can be classified as a narrow encounter,” De la Cruz told The STAR.

The asteroid was discovered on Jan. 30, 2004 by a telescope of the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research survey in White Sands, New Mexico.

De la Cruz said a flyby of such a large space rock will not occur again until 2027 when asteroid 1999 AN10 comes into view on Aug. 7, 2027.

He assured the public the asteroid would not pose any danger to earth. “It will be too far to be of threat.”

“It would be difficult to observe except with a telescope or a good pair of binoculars,” De la Cruz said.