A “potentially hazardous” asteroid more than twice the height of the Empire State Building will soon meet Earth in January – after which it will not make its next visit for 200 years.
The space rock, called (7482) 1994 PC1, is expected to shine near our planet at a “close” distance of 0.013 AU on January 18. Newsweek reportsDikutip dari NASA Center for Near-Earth Object Studies.
But that means a very comfortable distance of about 1.2 million miles, which is more than five times farther from Earth than the Moon, according to Mag.
However, the asteroid was not mushy, measuring about 3,280 feet in diameter—roughly twice the height of the famous Big Apple skyscraper.
An asteroid of this size hits the Earth approximately every 600,000 years. According to EarthSky.
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It will zoom in at about 44,000 miles per hour before venturing into another solar orbit and not returning until 2105, according to the space agency.
The massive body was discovered on August 9, 1994 – hence the name – by Robert McNutt at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia, EarthSky reported.
Astronomers also found the asteroid in earlier images dating from September 1974.
Amateur skywatchers will be able to spot (7482) PC1 1994 at approximately 4:50 p.m. EDT on January 18. This will appear as a point of light passing in front of the background star at night.
The rock will shine 10 degrees brightly – a worthy target for observers with telescopes 6 inches or larger.
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