Mumbai, January 18: A gigantic asteroid believed to be over twice the size of the Empire State Building is set to fly past Earth on January 18. Asteroid 7482, also known as 1994 PC1, will skim past our planet from a safe distance of 1,230,000 miles, said NASA. According to EarthSky, Asteroid 7482's closest approach to Earth occurs on January 18, 2022, at 4:51 p.m. EST (January 19 at 3:21 am IST). It will be the closest for this asteroid for at least the next 200 years.

Asteroid 7482, a Near-Earth Object is very well known to us and the Planetary Defense Experts have been studying it for decades since it was first discovered in 1994. It can be seen on January 18 with a good telescope, says NASA. Massive Asteroid Twice the Size of Empire State Building to Zoom Past Earth at 43,000 Miles Per Hour on January 18.

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The estimated size of Asteroid 7482 is approximately around 3,280 feet or a kilometer in diameter. It is set to pass from about 1.93 million km from Earth which is about 5.15 times the Earth-moon distance. The object will be flying at 70,416 kilometers per hour relative to Earth.

Asteroid 7482 has been categorised by NASA as a “potentially hazardous object” due to its size and relative proximity to the Earth. However, the US space agency has said that the monstrous asteroid is not going to harm the blue planet.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 18, 2022 11:36 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).