Asteroid, 2.5 times the size of Empire State Building set to cross Earth

New Delhi, Jan 04: An asteroid which is 2.5 times the height of the Empire State Building will cross the Earth this month.

NASA's Centre for Near Earth Studies said that the asteroid will fly by Earth on January 18 2022. A report in the earthsky.org said that the asteroid has been designated as 7,482 (1994 PC1) by NASA. Earthsky also said that the asteroid is the size of the Golden Gate Bridge in the United States.

NASA said that the asteroid has a diameter of 1.052 kilometres and its rotation period is around 2.6 hours.

NASA has classified the asteroid as a potentially hazardous one due to its size and the relatively close flybys of Earth. However the 1994 PCI will safely pass the Earth. Robert McNaught at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia on August 9, 1994 had first discovered the asteroid.

On January 18 at 4.51 EST (India time January 19 3.21 am) there asteroid is set to make its closest approach to Earth. This would be the closest approach for the asteroid for the next 200 years.

It would pass by the Earth at a distance of 1.2 million miles and this is 5.15 times the distance between the Earth and Moon. The asteroid is moving at a speed of 43,754 miles per hour relative to Earth.