Asteroid 2004 BL86 to 'narrowly' miss Earth Monday Amateur stargazers will have a once-in-a-decade opportunity to see an asteroid 550 metres wide “narrowly” miss Earth on Jan 26. The space rock, code-named 2004 BL86, is expected to reach a point about 1.2 million kilometres from our planet, or three times the distance to the Moon. Although easily far enough away to be safe, the flyby – at an estimated 56,000 kilometres per hour – counts as a close shave in astronomical terms. It will be ... [more]