Asteroid Florence MAPPED: Where to see the BIGGEST ever asteroid among star constellations

The 4.8 kilometre wide asteroid will pass Earth at just 0.047 AU – one AU (astronomical unit) is the distance between the Sun and the Earth.

The relatively small distance, which is around seven million kilometres, is 18 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon – a close encounter in astronomical terms.

As such, and due to its size, a staggering 4.8 kilometres wide, Nasa have classified the asteroid as a Near Earth Object (NEO).

Due to its distance, it can be quite tricky to spot, especially if the skies are not crystal clear.

But this map will make it easier to track this close encounter with the asteroid expected to be at its peak brightness tonight – Thursday August 31. 

Any amateur astronomer with a pair of binoculars will be able to spot Florence moving slowly across the night sky if they look to the edge of the star constellation Aquarius, just above Capricornus.

As the days go by, Florence will move past the constellation Equuleus on September 2 toward and through Delphinus on September 3 before slowly moving out of sight.

According to Kelly Beatty, a senior editor at Sky & Telescope magazine, “Florence should be fairly easy to spot.”

The asteroid will appear bright in the sky, like a star slowly drifting northwards – the fact that it is moving makes it easily distinguishable from stars.

Ms Beatty said: ”The best time to see asteroid Florence will be in the late evening, when it’s positioned well overhead.

“Peak brightness will be tonight (Aug. 31), when it’s at magnitude 8.7. However, the asteroid should be almost as bright for several days before and after the end of the month.”

Asteroid Florence is the biggest near-Earth object (NEO) ever detected by Nasa, and the biggest since asteroid tracking began more than a century ago.

Paul Chodas, manager of Nasa’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said: “While many known asteroids have passed by closer to Earth than Florence will on September 1, all of those were estimated to be smaller.

“Florence is the largest asteroid to pass by our planet this close since the NASA program to detect and track near-Earth asteroids began.”

Due to its massive size, boffins at the space agency believe it is an ideal candidate to test out new asteroid observation technologies.

Using new Earth-based radars, Nasa says it can capture surface details on the giant asteroid that would be as small as 10 metres.