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posted by martyb on Tuesday January 18 2022, @06:34PM   Printer-friendly

A huge, kilometer-wide asteroid will pass by Earth today:

It will pass within 1.2 million miles of our planet, moving at 47,344 miles per hour, according to NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies, which tracks potentially hazardous comets and asteroids that could collide with our planet.

The approaching asteroid is known as 7482 (1994 PC1), and it was discovered in 1994, according to NASA.

Nobody expects 7482 (1994 PC1) to hit Earth, but it's the closest the asteroid will come for the next two centuries, according to NASA projections. The asteroid is expected to be at its nearest to our planet at 4.51 p.m. ET.

[...] It won't be the largest asteroid ever to sweep past Earth. That honor belongs to the asteroid 3122 Florence (1981 ET3), which flew by and missed colliding with Earth on September 1, 2017. That asteroid is estimated to be between 2.5 miles and 5.5miles wide, and it will make another pass on September 2, 2057.

[...] While the asteroid is unlikely to be visible today with the naked eye, amateur astronomers with a small telescope should be able to spot it, according to the website EarthSky.com.


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  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Mockingbird on Tuesday January 18 2022, @09:09PM (1 child)

    by Mockingbird (15239) on Tuesday January 18 2022, @09:09PM (#1213672) Journal

    Expect emergency rooms to be filled with whiplash victims today.

    A truck driver, or lawyer's, view of astrophysics!
    From a vantage point of 1.2 million miles, an object moving at 47,344 miles per hour is pretty slow. Runaway's physics is nearly as good as his legal advice!

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  • (Score: 2, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday January 18 2022, @09:36PM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday January 18 2022, @09:36PM (#1213681) Journal

    That's just cold. Why you wanna lump truck drivers and lawyers together? Hmmmm - the QOTD seems appropriate here - "You will be run over by a beer truck."