How to track the giant asteroid passing by Earth today
An asteroid bigger than the tallest building on Earth is on a cruise through the inner solar system.
- Finalist for the Nesta Tipping Point prize and a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
A kilometer-wide asteroid will be swinging through our neighborhood.
There's no need to freak out, but an asteroid that measures a little over half a mile wide (1 kilometer) is currently flying close enough to our planet that amateur astronomers can get a glimpse.
Asteroid 1994 PC1 swings past our cosmic corner on Tuesday. While it's quite a big 'un as space rocks go, it is comfortably zipping by at a distance of 1.2 million miles (1.93 million kilometers) from Earth. That's more than five times the distance between our planet and the moon, so if you aren't worried about the moon crashing into your house this week, you shouldn't be worried about this asteroid either.
"Near-Earth asteroid 1994 PC1 is very well known and has been studied for decades by our planetary defense experts," NASA tweeted Wednesday. "Rest assured, 1994 PC1 will safely fly past our planet."
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.
— NASA Asteroid Watch (@AsteroidWatch) January 12, 2022
Track it yourself here: https://t.co/JMAPWiirZh pic.twitter.com/35pgUb1anq
Asteroids go whipping by us pretty much every day. Thousands are cataloged and tracked and most that pass close by our planet tend to be pretty small. 1994 PC1 is a pretty big one to be venturing so far outside the asteroid belt, but by no means is it unprecedented.
The Virtual Telescope Project in Italy captured this footage as the asteroid approached Monday:
The stony giant is ripping by at a sizzling 43,754 miles per hour (19.5 kilometers per second) relative to Earth. All that speed makes it observable for backyard telescopes of about 6 inches or wider in diameter. The easiest way to spot it is to use some sort of skywatching software like Stellarium or a website like In The Sky.
NASA's Eyes website also offers some cool visualizations to track 1994 PC1's progress.
If the weather doesn't cooperate where you are or you aren't much of a backyard astronomer, the Virtual Telescope Project is livestreaming a watch party.