Giant asteroid coming close to earth, says NASA

Since the start of January, 2022, a number of asteroids have been reported coming close to the Earth and whizzing past it at close proximity.

However, the buzz across the globe around asteroids is not abating.

Reason? The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) shared that an asteroid with a diameter of around 1 Km, which means bigger than even the world's largest building Burj Khalifa, is coming close to the Earth.

What is more, you can actually spot the asteroid and watch it on your gadget.

About this asteroid, NASA said that in the next two days, that is on January 18 at 4:51 pm ET this upcoming massive asteroid known as 7482 or 1994 PC1 will make a close appearance around 1.2 million miles away from our planet.

That is very close in space terms for an asteroid to pass Earth. 

NASA had some reassuring words to say though about this particular asteroid.

In a tweet, NASA said \"Near-Earth asteroid 1994 PC1 (~1 km wide) is very well known and has been studied for decades by our Planetary Defense experts. Rest assured, 1994 PC1 will safely fly past our planet 1.2 million miles away next Tuesday, January 18 (sic).\"

The massive 1994 PC1 asteroid was first discovered in 1994 by Robert McNaught at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia.

This asteroid's orbit around the Sun lasts 1.57 Earth years.

This means that every 30 years or so, its orbit crosses that of the Earth.

Can people see this giant asteroid?

Of course, you can! This giant asteroid is visible via a good telescope.

But if you don't have access to a telescope, then you can still watch it live on the Virtual Telescope Project's website or track it by yourself at NASA's 'Eyes on Asteroids' portal.

What if this asteroid hit the Earth?

This is a question that is making everyone worry about the giant, bigger than Burj Khalifa sized asteroid.

Well, you should know that actually, some asteroids have hit Earth over the course of its history, and there is a possibility that it will happen again.

Even meteoroids, which are the smaller version of the asteroids collide with Earth all the time, which we usually refer to as shooting stars.

Track it yourself at NASA: https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/asteroids/

NASA has confirmed that asteroid 1994 PC1 will pass within 1.2 million miles of our planet at a speed of 47,344 miles per hour, which will be the closest asteroid that Earth will get for the next two centuries.

Despite being the closest, it will not be close enough to ring alarm bells.

NASA says that Earth will be safe from this massive asteroid."