AN ASTEROID is set to travel relatively close to Earth today (Tuesday, January 18) at about 1.2 million miles, or 1.9 million kilometres, away from the planet.
Officially called the 1994 PC1 asteroid, it will pass Earth at about five times the distance between the Earth and Moon.
NASA's Asteroid Watch posted about the asteroid coming close to Earth on their Twitter account last week.
They wrote: "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."
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.
— NASA Asteroid Watch (@AsteroidWatch) January 12, 2022
Track it yourself here: https://t.co/JMAPWiirZh pic.twitter.com/35pgUb1anq
According to NASA Glossary near-Earth objects that come at a distance of below 0.05 astronomical units or 7.5 million kilometres from Earth are termed as potentially hazardous asteroids.
As it has a diameter of about 1km it is classified as an Apollo asteroid, and it will make another close approach of the Earth around July 3 this year.
According to NASA, no known asteroid poses a risk of impact with Earth over the next 100 years.
You can track the progress of the 1994 PC1 asteroid on the NASA Asteroid Watch website here.
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