A Gigantic Asteroid Will Fly by Earth Next Week

Nowadays, space is on the agenda with huge asteroids encountering Earth. The last occurrence will take place when an asteroid will pass Earth next week.

Discovered back in 1994 from the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia, asteroid 1994 PC1 will pass within approximately 2 million kilometers at a speed of about 20 kilometers per second, according to EarthSky.

Also known as asteroid 7482, the approaching space rock is classified as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid. That refers to an “asteroid’s potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth,” according to NASA. But this does not mean our blue pale dot will get into danger by that rock. To envision, the distance between the Moon and Earth is roughly 385,000 kilometers. Fortunately, there is nothing to be worried about. A previous close pass took place by 4660 Nereus, the 330 meter-wide asteroid continuing its journey in the depths of space following the encounter.

What to know about asteroid  1994 PC1 (7482)

The asteroid is about 1.1 kilometers in diameter, which means it is three times as high as the Empire State Building. It will fly by Earth on January 18 at 4:51 pm EST (21.51 UTC).

Illustration by Eddie Irizarry / Stellarium. EarthSky

How to watch asteroid 1994 PC1

It is amateur astronomers’ job with their humble telescopes. These sky enthusiasts could spot asteroid 1994 PC1 if they point their tool in the right place at the right time. According to EarthSky, “For North America, observers with backyard telescopes have the best opportunity to see the huge asteroid hours after the January 18 close approach.”

“Another good technique for spotting the asteroid is to attach a camera to the telescope and take exposures of 30 to 45 seconds. Point the camera and telescope at a reference star or object in the trajectory of the asteroid,” said EarthSky’s Eddie Irizarry, member of the Astronomical Society of the Caribbean, in his piece. “An image exposed for several seconds shows the space rock’s motion as a streak of light, while shorter exposures reveal the asteroid as a point of light that appears in different locations in the images.”

In case you don’t have a telescope and if you don’t want to miss the sky event, you can watch the stream that will be carried out by the Virtual Telescope Project on that day.