Monday evening is set to see Earth's closet call with an asteroid until 2027.
The asteroid, designated 2004 BL86, will safely pass about three times the distance of Earth to the moon on January 26 - so close.
It will be the closest by any known space rock this large until asteroid 1999 AN10 flies past Earth in 2027.
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Observers in the Americas, Europe, and Africa have the best seats for seeing this interloper during its brightest time: from 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Monday evening, January 26th, until about 1 a.m. EST on the 27th.
During this time 2004 BL86 will be heading northward through the dim constellation Cancer.
It skims the eastern edge of a star cluster called the Beehive (or Messier 44) from about midnight to 12:30 a.m. EST.
