While it isn’t a scene from the recent movie, “Just Look Up”, a large asteroid will pass safely by Earth on January 17th.
The asteroid, 7482, is about twice the size as the Empire State Building. Astronomers first observed early images of the object in 1974. It was discovered in 1994 and was classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid due to its size and close proximity to Earth.
University of Nebraska Science Professor Krista Testin tells KLIN News, “This one just happens to come closer than a lot of the others and because of its size it became newsworthy. When you look at percentages and probability, the chances of it affecting us are pretty small – but there is always a chance. A couple years ago we got a big asteroid in the Russian wilderness that everyone heard about so they do enter the Earth’s atmosphere but the chances are low. This one is newsworthy because of the distance and its size making it visible to armature astrologists.”
Testin says this happens all the time. There are hundreds of thousands that come within or near Earth’s orbit. Most times we don’t realize it. “We get about a ton of space dust every day just because the Earth travels through space,” said Testin.
The 7482 asteroid will pass the earth at 3:51 Tuesday afternoon. The distance is 1.2 million miles from the Earth. This large space rock is traveling at 43,754 miles an hour. Astronomy buffs should be able to see it with their own telescopes.