Asteroid 7482, twice bigger than Empire State Building, to skim past Earth on January 18

Amongst a number of celestial events that are supposed to happen in 2022, count another one in as Asteroid 7482 will zoom past the Earth on January 18. NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) has revealed that the space rock is over twice the size of the Empire State Building and flyby at a speed of 69,200 kilometres per hour. Although classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid, NASA stated that it will pass at a safe distance of over 1.9 million kilometres from our planet, which is five times the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

More about the insanely massive space rock

Asteroid 7482, also going by the name 1994 PC1, measures a massive 3,280ft in diameter, still, it will be only be spotted through a telescope owing to such a huge distance. Interestingly, this space rock orbits the Sun every 1.5 years and won't come close to Earth until 2051. Moreover, its closest approach to the Earth was back in 1933 when the asteroid was just 1.1 million kilometres from our planet.

As for its discovery, astronomer Robert McNaught was the first to spot the asteroid in 1994 using the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia and after years of observation, scientists have been able to establish its orbit.

Other asteroids heading our way this month

Apart from 1994 PC1, asteroid 2021 YK will fly by Earth from a distance of 1,18,000 kilometres from Earth as early as January 2. Measuring just 12 metres in width, this will be one of the three asteroids heading towards Earth in January. The list of incoming asteroids also includes 2013 YD48 which is around 104 metres broad, about the same size as Big Ben. Classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid, it will make its closest approach from a distance of 5.6 million kilometres from our planet. Moreover, 2014 YE15, which is only 7 metres wide and four-metre-wide 2020 AP1 will skim past the Earth from nearly 8 million kilometres and  1.7 million kilometres away, respectively. 

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