Astronomers are monitoring a doubtlessly hazardous asteroid referred to as 7482 (1994 PC1) by means of the sky on Tuesday this week because it's set to make a comparatively shut move by our planet—and you'll watch it stay.
The house rock, one of many greatest ones anticipated to come back close to Earth within the coming months, is considered round 1 kilometer extensive, or 3,300 ft in diameter.
1994 PC1 will not be anticipated to hit our planet, however it's going to come inside round 5 instances the space between our planet and the moon. Its shut move is because of happen at round 4:51 p.m. ET on January 18.
In contrast, different giant asteroids over a kilometer extensive are set to make their very own "shut strategy" to Earth within the coming months however will likely be so far as 70 instances the space between our planet and the moon.
1994 PC1 is not only large, however quick. When it is closest to Earth, the house rock is anticipated to be touring at a velocity of round 45,000 miles per hour.
Regardless of its velocity, astronomers are hoping to get an excellent shot of 1994 PC1. The Digital Telescope Undertaking is ready to host a livestream of the asteroid because it passes overhead on Tuesday.
The web video is ready to start out at 3:00 p.m. ET on January 18 on the Digital Telescope Undertaking's WebTV web page.
The astronomy group has additionally been in a position to seize photos of the James Webb House Telescope by way of its ground-based telescope gear just lately.
1994 PC1 has made headlines just lately resulting from its dimension and strategy. In accordance with NASA's Heart for Close to Earth Object Research (CNEOS) the asteroid is classed as a "Probably Hazardous Asteroid" or PHA.
Which means it falls inside CNEOS's definition of a PHA as being sufficiently giant and coming inside round 4,650,000 miles of Earth. An asteroid being classed as a PHA doesn't imply that it's anticipated to hit Earth.
As its title suggests, 1994 PC1 was found within the yr 1994 on the Siding Spring observatory in Australia by Robert McNaught, in line with the Minor Planet Heart. The asteroid orbits the solar as soon as each 572 days or so.
After it makes its move by Earth this week, 1994 PC1 will not be anticipated to come back so near Earth once more till the following century.
It's common for different asteroids to make shut approaches to Earth, although. A number of have already carried out so this yr.
Scientists are more and more cautious of the dangers that asteroids pose to our planet and in 2021 NASA launched the Double Asteroid Redirection Check (DART) mission to trial a possible future protection methodology that may contain crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid at excessive velocity.
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