Mountain-sized Alinda Asteroid Seen From Earth This Weekend - When To See 'Once In A Decade' Show...

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The massive space rock zoomed past Earth earlier this month, but it is not out of view just yet and can be observed from home with basic stargazing binoculars or in a free livestream.

Named (887) Alinda, the near-Earth asteroid measures an estimated 2.6 miles (4.2 kilometers) wide and is the size of a mountain. On Wednesday (January 8) the rock made its closest pass at Earth in decades, the last until a predicted return in 2087.

An asteroid this big could cause an extinction level event, but it is not expected to crash into Earth. Instead, stargazers can watch on as it passes by with a brightness at a magnitude of 9.4.

Though it will not be bright enough to see with the naked eye, the peak in its brightness tomorrow will be visible to those with stargazing binoculars. Gianluca Masi, who runs the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy, says binoculars or a good backyard telescope will be enough to see the pass.

A Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission proved that it is possible to divert a large asteroid by crashing a spacecraft into it. It is more likely these defences would see hundreds of missiles fired at incoming asteroids, to break it into smaller pieces.

Years or decades of advance permission are likely to be needed, according to LiveScience , which suggests other countries would need to be informed before a launch is made. China plans on launching an asteroid deflection mission by 2030.

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