You can watch a huge asteroid narrowly miss the earth today

An asteroid is set to pass so close to Earth on Monday afternoon that it will be visible with binoculars.

The 900m-long rock, named 2004 BL86, will come to within 1.2 million kilometres of Earth – about three times further away than the moon -- in the closest fly-by until 2027. It will pass at 16:30 GMT, according to the Watchers, but should be visible into the evening.

Don Yeomans, of Nasa’s Near-Earth Object Program, said: “While it poses no threat to Earth for the foreseeable future, it's a relatively close approach by a relatively large asteroid, so it provides us a unique opportunity to observe and learn more.

“I may grab my favorite binoculars and give it a shot myself."

Nasa’s charts show the route it will take — moving across and down the night sky as it flies past Earth.

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