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The utter state of the world in 2022, if you really want to you can watch a live stream of a ‘potentially hazardous asteroid’ known as 7482 or 1994 PC1 on January 18th as it proceeds to make an astronomically speaking, close pass of the Earth. “Close” in this instance meaning about 5x the distance between the Earth and our moon. The 3,300ft asteroid will make its closest pass to the earth at approximately 4:51 PM EST. Earthsky reports that the asteroid is traveling at a blistering 43,754 miles per hour (19.56 kilometers per second) relative to Earth which should allow amateur observers to spot it easily, it will appear as brightly as a 10th magnitude star.
According to Local12, “NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory believes the large space-faring rock will come within 1,231,184 miles of the planet. For reference, the moon is only about 239,000 miles (385,000 kilometers) away from the Earth, on average”
Nancy Chabot, a chief planetary scientist at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, told CBS News,
“We’re actually not talking, like, global extinction event, but regional devastation on the area that could wipe out a city or even a small state,” Chabot reportedly says. “And so it is a real concern. It is a real threat.”
1994 PC1’s name suggests it was discovered in 1994 by Robert McNaught at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia. According to the Minor Planet Center the kilometer-sized rock orbits the sun about once every 572 days, just shy of every two years, however, this is expected to be the closest pass the asteroid will make to Earth.
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
How To Observe The Asteroid On Its Pass
Amateur observers can use a small telescope at the right time and location to spot (7482) 1994 PC1. In the US, a few hours after the close approach on January 18th, thanks to its size and proximity the asteroid should be detectable. In spite of the full moon that night, the asteroids rapid motion should make locating it easy.
“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.”
Despite whatever Netflix says, feel free to look up.
