Asteroid 8 Times Monas Monument Passes Earth

Monday, January 17, 2022 – 09:07 WIB

–

VIVA – Asteroid eight times the size of the National Monument or Monas will cross Earth. Asteroid 7482 (1994 PC1) was first discovered in early August 1994 and measures 1,052 meters.

This space rock orbits the Sun for 572 days at an orbital tilt of 33.5 degrees and an orbital elongation of 0.33 (1.65 times the orbital elongation of Mercury).

In the last 27 years, this asteroid has passed near Earth five times with its closest distance on January 21, 1997 (12 Ramadan 1417 Hijri) at 06:58 UT at a distance of 9,742,000 km from Earth.

Asteroid 1994 PC1 will again pass near Earth with a distance of 1,982,000 km on Wednesday, January 19, 2022 at 04.51 WIB or after the wrong dawn. This asteroid is quite dim and its angular size is only 1 arcsecond so it can only be detected through a telescope.

This space object is included in the Apollo family of asteroids because its average distance is greater than the average distance from Earth to the Sun (149.6 million km). However, the closest distance is smaller than the farthest distance from Earth to the Sun (152.1 million km).

According to the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space or LAPAN, as quoted by VIVA Tekno, Monday, January 17, 2022, Asteroid 7482 is also potentially dangerous because of its size greater than 300 meters with an absolute brightness of +16.56 and an albedo (ratio of the intensity of light received and reflected back) of 0.277.

However, the closest distance to an asteroid eight times the size of the Monas Monument is still larger than the Roche Limit of the Comet-Sun system (1,238,000 km) and the Earth-Sun system (556,400 km). Because the asteroid’s distance is greater than the Roche Limit, then Asteroid 7482 (1994 PC1) will safely pass close to Earth.

–