A huge asteroid will pass by Earth today

On a universal scale, Tuesday’s asteroid just misses us

Asteroid 1994PC1 gets close enough that people with backyard telescopes can see it.

Considering the size of the universe this is really close (Copyright 2021 by KPRC Click2Houston - All rights reserved.)

What to know:

The name 1994PC1 comes from the year it was discovered, 1994. It is 2 1/2 times the height of the Empire State Building in New York. It is called a potentially hazardous asteroid because of its size and proximity to Earth. Scientists say an asteroid this size passes this close to the Earth once every 600,000 years. While it is a little more than five times the Earth-moon distance. You can track the asteroid here.

The asteroid be visible in North America hours after its closest approach. According to EarthSky.org, a small telescope pointed at the right time and location should be able to detect the asteroid’s motion.

The website also recommended attaching a camera to the telescope and taking exposures of 30 to 45 seconds.

“An image exposed for several seconds shows the space rock’s motion as a streak of light, while shorter exposures reveal the asteroid as a point of light that appears in different locations in the images,” EarthSky.org wrote.

The site recommends pointing the camera and telescope at a reference star in the trajectory of the asteroid. EarthSky.org has charts to help you find reference stars.

These points were discussed in the above video (Copyright 2021 by KPRC Click2Houston - All rights reserved.)

About the Author:

Two-time Emmy award winning meteorologist and recipient of the 2022 American Meteorological Society’s award for Excellence in Science Reporting by a Broadcast Meteorologist.