Asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1 will fly near Earth next week. A rocky object, one kilometer long, has been classified by NASA as potentially dangerous.
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Due to its size and its regular close proximity to the Earth, the asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1 was recognized by NASA as a potentially dangerous object. We have nothing to fear, because a visit to the facility, twice as large as the New York Empire State Building, will be safe.
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The asteroid will fly 1.93 million kilometers from Earth, or about 5.15 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon. Calculations of its trajectory indicate that there is no risk of it colliding with Earth anytime soon. It will be visible to amateur astronomers.
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Orbita asteroidy (7482) 1994 PC1ssd.jpl.nasa.gov
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The asteroid approached the Earth 89 years ago
The closest approach will be on January 18 at 16:51 (22:51 CEST). Known as the asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1, this space rock was discovered in 1994 by astronomer Robert McNaught at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia, ScienceAlert recalled. As he added, her last close meeting took place 89 years ago, on January 17, 1933, at a slightly shorter, but still safe, distance – 1.1 million kilometers. The next close-up will take place on January 18, 2105, at a similar distance from Earth. According to forecasts, an asteroid of this size only hits the Earth once in about 600,000 years.
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According to ScienceAlert, the current close-up will allow astronomers to learn more about this rocky S-type asteroid, which belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids. He explains that they are the most widespread asteroids we know and have a similar orbit length to Earth. The asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1 orbits the sun every year and 7 months on Earth, at a distance of 0.9 to 1.8 times the Earth.
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– The asteroid will travel at dizzying speeds of about 19.56 kilometers per second relative to Earth, which means it will look similar to a star. It cannot be seen with the naked eye or through binoculars, but will be visible through a telescope of at least 15cm, predicts Eddie Irizarry of EarthSky.org, quoted by ScienceAlert.
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DART mission
The NASA space agency is currently implementing the DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission. In November last year, it launched a probe towards the Didymos asteroid, the task of which will be to check whether the impact would be able to push it off course to save the Earth from catastrophe in the event of a threat.
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DART mission – how big are the objects the spaceship can reachNASA/Johns Hopkins APL
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photo-source">Main photo source: Shutterstock
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