AN ASTEROID that’s more than twice the size of the Empire State Building will make a nerve-shredding close pass with Earth tomorrow.
Asteroid 7482 (1994 PC1), as it’s called by Nasa, is estimated to be around 3,551 feet wide by the space agency.
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If scientists’ estimations are correct, the space rock is larger than the Burj Khalifa, which is the tallest building on Earth.
Nasa is keeping a close eye on the giant space rock.
It’s been added to its ‘Close Approaches’ list.
The giant asteroid should shoot past Earth from around 1.2million miles away.
This may seem pretty far but it’s actually not in terms of space.
Nasa considers anything passing within 120million miles of Earth a Near-Earth Object (NEO).
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Thousands of NEOs are tracked by scientists to monitor whether they’re on a collision course with our planet.
Any fast-moving space object that comes within 4.65 million miles is considered to be “potentially hazardous” by cautious space organizations.
One small change to their trajectories could spell disaster for Earth.
Asteroid 7482 (1994 PC1) should be travelling at just under 44,000 miles per hour.
The asteroid is said to cross Earth’s orbit every 30 years or so.
Next weeks closest approach should be at around 4:51pm ET (9:51pm GMT).
It isn’t expected to come this close again for another 200 years.
The Virtual Telescope Project will be live streaming the asteroid’s close encounter if you want to watch.
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Meet the man with an observatory on a Welsh hilltop who tracks thousands of potentially apocalyptic asteroids for Nasa
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