NASA Asteroid Watch has revealed that a ginormous asteroid will do a fly-by of Earth today, the closest encounter since 1993.
According to NASA, the asteroid, named 1994 PC 1, has been studied for decades.
Thankfully, NASA tweeted that earthlings have no reason to be alarmed.
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“Rest assured, 1994 PC1 will safely fly past our planet 1.2 million miles away,” said NASA Asteroid Watch.
To put that into perspective, 1994 PC 1 will be rushing by at a distance of roughly four to five times that of the moon’s distance from Earth.
NASA
1994 PC1 is a behemoth, coming in at over 1 km in width. Its average diameter is 1,052 metres.
Near-Earth #asteroid 1994 PC1 (~1 km wide) is very well known and has been studied for decades by our #PlanetaryDefense experts. Rest assured, 1994 PC1 will safely fly past our planet 1.2 million miles away next Tues., Jan. 18.
Track it yourself here: https://t.co/JMAPWiirZh pic.twitter.com/35pgUb1anq
— NASA Asteroid Watch (@AsteroidWatch) January 12, 2022
NASA classifies 1994 PC 1 as “bridge-size.” There are three other asteroids that will pass relatively close to the Earth on Tuesday, and they are classified as airplane and bus-sized.
NASA
You can track the asteroid’s trajectory through NASA’s Eyes on Asteroids website, and amateur astronomers may be able to spot the asteroid with a telescope.
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