NASA Says a Massive Asteroid Will Pass Earth Next Week; How To Spot It?

NASA has reported that another giant asteroid would pass quite near Earth on its space journey.

The space agency's Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) center, which finds and tracks massive space objects that might pose a hazard to Earth, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory is tracking the celestial body.

Fortunately, like with earlier near-fly-by instances, NASA says there's no need to be concerned.

An illustration, created in March 2021, of NASA's Psyche spacecraft, which is targeted to launch to the main asteroid belt in August 2022 to investigate the metal-rich asteroid Psyche.

Asteroid 7482 (1994 PC1) To Zoom Past Earth

The huge asteroid 7482 (1994PC1) will pass within 1.2 million miles of Earth, which is relatively nearby cosmic standards but far enough away to pose no damage to the planet.

NASA (via The Hill) predicts the massive chunk of rock will fly by Earth at a speed of around 43,000 miles (more than 69,000 kilometers) per hour on Jan. 18, at around 4:51 p.m. EST.

The flyby will be the closest the asteroid - which is predicted to be 3,451 feet broad - will get near Earth in the next two centuries. It will approach close enough to see with a tiny home telescope.

Space Reference said that the approaching asteroid was discovered for the first time in 1994.

It comes only weeks after another asteroid, 4660, flew by the globe in December. The astronomical object passed Earth at almost 1.5 million miles (around 2.4 million kilometers).

How to See Asteroid Passing By

EarthSky said seeing the asteroid passing Earth with a modest telescope should be adequate. The tricky aspect is that the telescope must be in the correct area when the asteroid comes by, and the sky must be clear. The precise timing to search for the asteroid is determined by your location.

Amateur astronomers should aim their telescopes at the star HIP 7011 on Jan. 18, then wait a few minutes to see whether the asteroid passes quite near the star.

Attaching a camera to a telescope and taking long-exposure photographs might be valuable, as the shutter will record everything that moves through the field of vision while the shutter is open. However, there is a potential catch: visibility is dependent on the weather - if it's foggy in your region when the asteroid goes by, you might not be able to see it.

Will DART Collide on Asteroids?

Meanwhile, a NASA spacecraft launched in November is on its way to collide into an asteroid over 6 million miles away from Earth in September or early October.

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) aims to see how the course of an asteroid changes when a spacecraft collides with it at over 15,000 miles per hour. The method might one day be utilized to protect Earth from an oncoming asteroid that poses a hazard to the globe.

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