Massive asteroid to pass close to Earth

An asteroid the size of a mountain is about to zoom by Earth, in a rare type of flyby that will not be seen for another decade, astronomers said Monday.

The asteroid, known as 2004 BL86, runs no risk of a colliding with Earth and will be about three times farther than the Moon when it passes.

“At the time of its closest approach on January 26, the asteroid will be approximately 745,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) from Earth,” NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement.

For this particular asteroid, it will mark the closest pass by Earth in around 200 years.

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