An asteroid the size of a skyscraper will pass relatively close to Earth in a few days

A ‘potentially dangerous’ asteroid more than twice the height of the Empire State Building would make a Close encounter with Earth in January, after which it will make its next visit in 200 years.

The space rock, called (7482) 1994 PC1, is expected to pass our planet at a distance A “close approximation” of 0.013 AU on January 18, mentioned NEWSWEEK , cited by the NASA Center for Near-Earth Object Studies.

But this translates into a fairly comfortable distance from About 1.9 million km, which is five times more than the Earth is from the Moon, According to the magazine.

However, the asteroid is not far away, with a diameter of about 3,280 feet, About two and a half times the height of the famous skyscraper in the Big Apple.

According to EarthSky, an asteroid of this size hits Earth approximately every 600,000 years.

It will approach about 44,000 miles per hour before venturing into another solar orbit and not return to our orbit until 2105, according to the space agency.

The large body was discovered on August 9, 1994, hence its name by Robert McNutt at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia.

Astronomers also found the asteroid in earlier images dating back to September 1974.

Amateur skywatchers will be able to detect (7482) 1994 PC1 at approximately 4:50 pm on January 18. It will appear as a point of light passing in front of the background stars at night.

The rocks will glow around 10 degrees, which is a decent target for observers with a 6-inch or larger telescope.

Fortunately, it won’t be an asteroid 5-10 kilometers long that will annihilate us in six months, but its passage to Earth is still intriguing, just a month after the premiere of Don’t Look Up, the last movie on Netflix that warns about mass extinction Because of the collision of an intergalactic body.

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