The 1km-wide asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1 will make its closest strategy to Earth at 9:51pm UTC this night (18 January).
However don’t fear if the movie Don’t Look Up has acquired you all twitchy about the potential for a catastrophic collision with our planet: 1994 PC1 will safely move at a distance of 1,982,172km (1,231,664 miles). That’s about 5 occasions the gap from Earth to the Moon.
What can we learn about 1994 PC1?
The asteroid was found in August 1994 by the astronomer Robert McNaught on the Siding Spring Observatory in Coonabarabran, Australia. It's labeled as an Apollo-class asteroid, that are objects whose orbits cross the orbit of Earth. There are presently 15,479 recognized Apollo-class asteroids.
1994 PC1 takes 572 days to orbit the Solar. It rotates on its axis each two and a half hours.
Its measurement of 1km makes it fairly large in asteroid phrases. These rocky our bodies can vary in measurement from as small as one metre throughout, to giants like Vesta, which is greater than 530 kilometres in diameter.
Ought to I be fearful about 1994 PC1?
The asteroid is classed as a doubtlessly hazardous object (PHO). This can be a near-Earth object, similar to an asteroid or comet, that makes shut approaches to Earth and is massive sufficient to trigger harm within the occasion of an affect. Astronomers can mannequin the orbits of asteroids and comets, and 99 per cent of PHOs – together with 1994 PC1 – are usually not thought of to be an affect risk over the subsequent 100 years.
NASA’s Planetary Protection Coordination Workplace (PDCO) was established in 2016 with a purpose to handle the affect hazard of near-Earth objects. The PDCO detects PHOs measuring greater than 30 to 50 metres in measurement that come inside 8,000,000km (5,000,000 miles) of Earth’s orbit. As 1994 PC1 falls inside these parameters, it's a well-studied asteroid, and if there was any likelihood of affect, the PDCO could be poised to inform governmental departments.
How can I see 1994 PC1?
The passage of 1994 PC1 remains to be thrilling in astronomical phrases. The subsequent time it should move at an identical distance can be 18 January 2105. Whereas the asteroid can be too dim to see with the bare eye or binoculars, these with a telescope would possibly have the ability to spot it. Stargazers ought to see it monitoring throughout the sky in entrance of background stars. And for these individuals who choose to remain heat, there's a stay asteroid tracker on the NASA web site.
What are asteroids and comets?
Asteroids and comets are leftover remnants from the formation of our Photo voltaic System greater than 4 billion years in the past. Asteroids are rocky our bodies that fashioned nearer to the Solar than Jupiter, whereas comets are frozen balls of ice, rock and dirt that had been born additional out within the Photo voltaic System and are recognised by their tail that spews out behind them.
In keeping with NASA, there are presently 1,113,527 asteroids within the Photo voltaic System. The overwhelming majority of those stay in the principle asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The variety of recognized comets is 3,743, however there are possible tens of millions extra orbiting past Neptune within the Kuiper Belt.
Whereas it’s nonetheless up for debate, the most definitely explanation for the mass extinction that worn out the dinosaurs (aside from birds) was an infinite 10km-wide asteroid crashing into planet Earth, which triggered catastrophic volcanic eruptions and widespread local weather change. The 150km-wide Chicxulub crater, on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, is considered the place the asteroid smashed into the planet.
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