This Sunday, an asteroid larger than Manhattan – large enough it could end civilization, or at least wreck a country – is casually flying by Earth. Don’t panic. This rocky beast named (887) Alinda has zero chance of hitting the blue marble anytime soon.
Image Credit: Metro [A NASA visualisation of asteroid (887) Alinda. An asteroid bigger than Manhattan is flying close by Earth. The space rock - named (887) Alinda - is so large it will be viewable with ordinary binoculars. With an estimated diameter of 4.2 km, the asteroid's January appearance sees it coming within a relatively cosmically close distance of 7,630,000 miles to us. However, the asteroid is not considered hazardous. While it is classified as a "Near Earth Asteroid" due to its proximity to our orbit, Alinda is not on a collision course with our planet. According to space-watching website Virtual Telescope, the asteroid is expected to peak in brightness on Sunday (12 Jan). They commented: "Considering all the asteroids coming closer than 15 million of kilometers, Alinda is one of the five largest ones in size from now until 2200." Manhattan is 2.3 miles wide at its widest point.]
But Jake Foster, a public astronomy officer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, has a few ideas of what would happen if it did. We wouldn’t have a good time, it’s safe to say. ‘The effects would undoubtedly be globally catastrophic,’ he told Metro.
Image Credit: Metro
‘With an estimated size of 4.2km wide, it is around one third of the size of the asteroid that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs, which was estimated to be between 10 and 15km wide.’. Asteroids, sometimes as small as six feet or as large as mountains, are craggy lumps of space rock made from the ancient leftovers of the early solar system.
Image Credit: Metro [Illustration of the K T Event at the end of the Cretaceous Period. A ten-kilometre-wide asteroid or comet is entering the Earths atmosphere as dinosaurs, including T. rex, look on.]
Many orbit the sun in much the same way as planets do. Alinda, likely named after the ancient city of the same name, orbits every 3.89 years. When Alinda flits by us in a few days, it will be a close-ish distance of 7,630,000 miles away, the closest it’s got in 100 years.
Image Credit: Metro [Planet Earth and big asteroid in the space. Concept a potentially hazardous object (PHO). Potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs). Asteroid in outer space near Earth planet. Stony-iron meteorite is solar system. Elements of this image furnished by NASA. ______ Url(s): "https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2159.html" Software: Adobe Photoshop CC 2015. Knoll light factory. Adobe After Effects CC 2017. 3ds Max 2016.]
At this distance, stargazers craning their necks up will see the rock as a bright whizzing speck for about 10 days in the Northern Hemisphere by the constellations of Orion and Gemini. On Sunday, it might be bright enough to be seen with the naked eye.
![[Illustration of the K T Event at the end of the Cretaceous Period. A ten-kilometre-wide asteroid or comet is entering the Earths atmosphere as dinosaurs, including T. rex, look on.]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_235547832-9445.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
