A giant asteroid that is in excess of a half-mile wide is set to securely speed by Earth one week from now.
The space rock known as 7482 (1994 PC1) will make it nearest way to deal with our planet for around 200 years when it flies by on Jan. 18 around 1:51 p.m. PT, as per a section on NASA’s Solar System Dynamics site.
A ways off of around 1.2 million miles from Earth, the asteroid is still very far – for reference, the moon is in excess of 200,000 miles away – and it’s not normal to represent a danger to the planet.
NASA does, be that as it may, order 7482 as “potentially hazardous object” because of its size and nearness to Earth.
Found in 1994, the asteroid has a distance across of around 3,451 feet, making it over two times as extensive as New York City’s Empire State Building.
The large object is traveling at speeds of approximately 43,754 mph.
While stargazers in North America will not have the option to see the space rock streaking across the sky with the unaided eye, they can attempt to see 7482 with a little telescope, as per EarthSky.
The asteroid will likewise fly by Earth again this year toward the beginning of July – however at a much more comfortable distance of 41.2 million miles from our planet.
NASA is getting ready for the likelihood that a “Close Earth object, for example, an asteroid will represent a danger to the planet some time or another and as of late sent off the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission to test its planetary defense system.
The DART spacecraft will purposefully collide with an asteroid to check whether it that change its speed and direction. The boat will be explicitly focusing on the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos, which orbits the larger asteroid Didymos.
At the point when the expected impact happens this coming fall, Dimorphos will be around 6.8 million miles from Earth.
The mission blasted from California’s Vandnenberg Space Force Base last November.