‘Near-Earth’ asteroid twice as big as Empire State Building to pass by Tuesday; how to track, view it

An asteroid categorized by NASA as a “Close to-Earth object” will make its closest strategy to our planet for the following 200 years on Tuesday.

The asteroid, often called 7482 (1994 PC1), is about to fly by the planet at 1:51 p.m. PT, touring at a pace of about 43,754 mph, in response to NASA.

“Close to-Earth #asteroid 1994 PC1 (~1 km huge) may be very well-known and has been studied for many years by our #PlanetaryDefense consultants,” the area company tweeted final week. “Relaxation assured, 1994 PC1 will safely fly previous our planet 1.2 million miles away.”

With a diameter of roughly 3,451 toes, the asteroid is greater than twice the scale of the Empire State Constructing.

And whereas there’s no risk that the asteroid will hit our planet, NASA nonetheless considers it a “probably hazardous object” attributable to a mixture of dimension and distance from Earth.

NASA’s “eyes on asteroid” web site is presently monitoring the big object, so that you’ll be to take a look at when it approaches and passes by Earth on Tuesday

For these seeking to truly view the asteroid, it’s not fairly large enough to see with the bare eye — however you’ll most likely be capable of observe it with a small telescope, EarthSky experiences.

Don’t have a telescope? Strive watching it on the Digital Telescope Undertaking’s livestream, which is able to start its feed beginning at midday.

This would be the first of two passes the area rock makes by Earth this 12 months, with the second approaching July 3 when it’s 41.2 million miles away from the planet. After that, the following strategy gained’t occur till 2033, in response to NASA.