Giant Asteroid To Pass By Earth Today, Says NASA. Here's How You Can Track It
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"Rest assured, 1994 PC1 will safely fly past our planet 1.2 million miles away," NASA tweeted.
A giant asteroid will whiz past the earth today, NASA has said. The asteroid, called 7482 (1994 PC1), measures more than a kilometer in width (approximately 3,450 feet) - making it larger than any building on earth. For comparison, the tallest building on earth, the Burj Khalifa, measures 2,722 feet. NASA's Asteroid Watch Twitter account said that PC1 has been studied by astronomers for decades and will not pose a threat to earth. At its closest, the asteroid will still be five lunar distances, which is five times the moon's distance from Earth. Near-Earth #asteroid 1994 PC1 (~1 km wide) is very well known and has been studied for decades by our #PlanetaryDefense experts. Rest assured, 1994 PC1 will safely fly past our planet 1.2 million miles away next Tues., Jan. 18.Track it yourself here: https://t.co/JMAPWiirZhpic.twitter.com/35pgUb1anq A huge asteroid bigger than the size of Burj Khalifa is set to fly past Earth at a 1,230,000-mile distance on January 18. The asteroid 7482, also known as 1994 PC1, is about 1.6 km wide and has been categorised by US space agency Nasa as a “potentially hazardous object”. Its quadruple vaccinated so it can come in if it wants👍🏼 That is a near miss… I hope that maths was ok, right? Ready for that asteroid to hit earth now. Oh, just hit us and get it over with. #DontLookUp As long as we dont acknowledge it, it can't hurt us. pic.twitter.com/eyLElfnptH
"Rest assured, 1994 PC1 will safely fly past our planet 1.2 million miles away," NASA tweeted. According to Space.com, the asteroid will make its closest approach on January 18 at 4.51 pm EST. In terms of Indian Standard Time, that would mean around 2.45 am on January 19. The asteroid will be travelling at a speed of around 45,000 miles per hour.
You can watch 1994 PC1's journey through our solar system on NASA's live asteroid tracker, using the link below:
