A massive asteroid will hit our planet safely next week.
The asteroid, known as 7482 (1994 PC1), will make its closest approach to our planet on January 18 at 4:51 pm. EST (2151 GMT), according to a table from the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) managed by NASA at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
The 3,400-foot (1 kilometer) asteroid will zoom the equivalent of five lunar distances on its closest approach by our planet, the table indicates, at a top speed of about 12 miles per second (20 km/s). At this distance, it will be a safe flyby, according to EarthSky, and will become the closest asteroid to Earth within the next 200 years.
Asteroids are space rocks that are leftovers of the early Solar System when our neighborhood was full of such objects. Tens of thousands of asteroids exist, but only a subset of them pass close enough to Earth to be called a near-Earth object (NEO). The 7482 (1994 PC1) flyby is thus very distinct from the several dozen or so typical earth flybys reported by the media each year.
NASA says that any asteroid or comet (which can be loosely defined as icy space rocks) falling within 1.3 astronomical units (120.9 million miles, or 194.5 million km) qualifies as an NEO. Huh. The agency had a mandate from Congress to seek and report at least 90 percent of all NEOs by 460 feet (140 meters) and by the end of 2020, to find objects even larger than previously requested.
While NASA has yet to meet that goal, it has a network of partner telescopes on the ground and in space that continue to work to find and monitor NEOs, through the agency's Planetary Defense Coordination Office. Manages efforts of potentially dangerous people. We don't have any imminent asteroids to worry about right now, but the agency is watching and testing defense technology to rule out any potential future threats.
NASA recently launched a mission called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) that will try to change the path of an asteroid to the Moon in the fall of 2022. Another mission, called OSIRIS-REx (Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer). ), is en route with an asteroid sample from asteroid Bennu, which could help in future asteroid composition studies and aid defense measures.
To look for new asteroids, NASA aims to have a dedicated mission to space by 2026, called the NEO Surveyor. The agency says that in the decade following launch, NEO Surveyors should fulfill a Congressional request to look for 90 percent of all NEOs 460 feet (140 meters) and larger.