A Huge, Kilometer-Wide Asteroid will Pass by Earth Today
upstart writes:
A huge, kilometer-wide asteroid will pass by Earth today:
It will pass within 1.2 million miles of our planet, moving at 47,344 miles per hour, according to NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies, which tracks potentially hazardous comets and asteroids that could collide with our planet.
The approaching asteroid is known as 7482 (1994 PC1), and it was discovered in 1994, according to NASA.
Nobody expects 7482 (1994 PC1) to hit Earth, but it's the closest the asteroid will come for the next two centuries, according to NASA projections. The asteroid is expected to be at its nearest to our planet at 4.51 p.m. ET.
[...] It won't be the largest asteroid ever to sweep past Earth. That honor belongs to the asteroid 3122 Florence (1981 ET3), which flew by and missed colliding with Earth on September 1, 2017. That asteroid is estimated to be between 2.5 miles and 5.5miles wide, and it will make another pass on September 2, 2057.
[...] While the asteroid is unlikely to be visible today with the naked eye, amateur astronomers with a small telescope should be able to spot it, according to the website EarthSky.com.
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