Large asteroid 1994 PC1 to fly past Earth at 5.5 LD on January 18
Image credit: NASA/Eyes on asteroids
A large near-Earth asteroid designated 1994 PC1 will fly past Earth at a distance of 5.5 LD / 0.01325 AU (1.98 million km / 1.23 million miles) on January 18, 2022. This is the second-closest approach of this object to Earth since 1933.
1994 PC1 is an Apollo-class asteroid (PHA) with an estimated diameter of 1 km ± 0.303 km (0.62 miles ± 0.18 mi).
It was discovered at Siding Spring Observatory in Coonabarabran, Australia on August 9, 1994, by Robert McNaught.
The object will fly past us at a speed (relative to the Earth) of 19.56 km/s at 21:51 UTC.
The closest flyby of this object took place on January 17, 1933, at a nominal distance of 0.00752 AU (1.1 million km / 700 000 miles).
While its next flyby will take place on July 3, 2022, at 0.44349 AU (66 million km), 1994 PC1 will not approach Earth as close as it will tomorrow until 12:28 UTC on January 18, 2105, at a distance of 0.01556 AU (2 328 075 km), and 23:50 UTC on January 20, 2194, at 0.02830 AU (4 233 281 km).
References:
Asteroid 1994 PC1 at Minor Planet Center; at CNEOS
I'm a dedicated researcher, journalist, and editor at The Watchers. With over 20 years of experience in the media industry, I specialize in hard science news, focusing on extreme weather, seismic and volcanic activity, space weather, and astronomy, including near-Earth objects and planetary defense strategies. You can reach me at teo /at/ watchers.news.
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