There’s a massive asteroid passing through Earth’s side of the solar system but thankfully our planet is at a safe distance from it. That being said the celestial object is at a relatively close distance to Earth. Per CBS News, the asteroid 7482 (1994 PC1) will go past the planet at a distance of 1,231,184 miles which is the closest it has come since 1933 when it first approached Earth at a distance of nearly 700,000 miles.
It is estimated that the asteroid is 3,280 feet in length, which is over twice the height of the Empire State Building (1,454 feet), and definitely taller than the Burj Khalifa (2,716 feet), which is popularly known for being the tallest building in the world. For comparison, the asteroid that caused the extinction of dinosaurs 65 million years ago, is estimated to be nearly 6.2 miles, or more than 31,680 feet, in length.
According to EarthSky, the asteroid 7482 (1994 PC1) was first observed at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia, in August 1994 by Robert McNaught. Astronomers were able to track its trajectory after spotting its images and piecing them together. The space rock’s next closest visit will happen in January 2105. At that time, it’s expected to come within 1.4 million miles of Earth. (The moon is nearly 238,855 miles from Earth.)
“Near-Earth #asteroid 1994 PC1 (~1 km wide) is very well known and has been studied for decades by our #PlanetaryDefense experts,” wrote NASA in a tweet this month. “Rest assured, 1994 PC1 will safely fly past our planet 1.2 million miles away next Tues., Jan. 18.” The asteroid is expected to pass by the Earth once again in July but this time it will be at a greater distance than Tuesday’s visit. And while it does not pose any immediate threat to our planet, NASA has listed it as a “potentially hazardous” object because of its close proximity to the Earth.
As of now, astronomers have discovered over 27,000 asteroids near Earth but they say none of them appear to be heading directly towards us for a collision. “We’re racking up the numbers for these populations, but at the same time, there is no known threat right now to Earth,” assured Kelly Fast, who is a near-Earth object observations program manager at NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office. “There’s nothing, there’s no asteroid that we know of that poses a significant threat to Earth.”
Although there’s nothing to worry about as of now, NASA is working on a method to protect the planet from such dangerous asteroids. It has even begun a trial run for its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). In the due course of this mission, the equipment will attempt to change the direction of asteroid Dimorphous using kinetic impact.