An asteroid is expected to fly past Earth at 5:51 a.m. Beijing time on January 19, 2022.
Although the massive asteroid is heading for Earth, it doesn't crash into Earth like a sci-fi movie, but instead passes the Earth at an alarming speed (19.56 kilometers per second), which foreign media say is almost twice the size of the Empire State Building in New York.
Recently, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said on Twitter: "The near-Earth asteroid 1994 PC1 is very famous, and our planetary defense experts have studied it for decades." Rest assured, it will fly safely over on January 18 (U.S. local time) about 193 kilometers above Earth. ”
The asteroid, with a diameter of 1.052 kilometers, will be its closest to Earth since 1933, when it was only about 112 kilometers away. The next close approach is expected to occur on January 18, 2105.
In 1994, it was discovered by astronomer RH McNaught at the Saidin Springs Observatory in Australia. According to USA Today, the asteroid is considered "potentially dangerous" by NASA because it crosses Earth's orbit.
"If this asteroid hits Earth, it will be a 'complete disaster' because its energy is greater than a nuclear explosion." Franck Marchis, an astronomer at the SETI Institute and chief scientific officer at Unistellar, said in an interview.
According to NASA, 1994 PC1 is an ordinary rocky S-type asteroid. Every 1.5 years or so, it orbits the Sun in a circle of 0.9-1.8 AU from the Sun (1 AU is the distance between the Sun and the Earth). Each of its closes gives astronomers the opportunity to study S-shaped asteroids and ancient space rocks. This close approach will give one the chance to see this huge rocky asteroid pass through the vast starry sky.
NASA's Eyes website
However, because its brightness is too dim to be captured with the naked eye or binoculars, it must be observed with a telescope of more than 15 centimeters. The asteroid can be found with the help of astronomical observation software such as Stellarium and In The Sky. NASA's Eyes website will provide countdowns and visualizations. The Rome-based Virtual Telescope Project will also provide webcasts of asteroids passing by.
According to NASA, they and other space agencies tracked about 28,000 asteroids orbiting the sun. None of the currently known asteroids will collide with Earth in the near future, but there are still some asteroids with unknown orbits. It is predicted that an asteroid the size of PC1 in 1994 will hit Earth once every 600,000 years or so. Currently, NASA is testing its DART mission to evaluate ways to change the orbit of a spacecraft by crashing it into an asteroid, which will be used in the future to defend against an asteroid's impact on Earth.