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PHOTOS AND VIDEO OF HUGE ASTEROID 1994 PC1. IT PASSED EARTH SAFELY JANUARY 18

Posted by
Eddie Irizarry

January 19, 2022

Our thanks to EarthSky community member Steven Bellavia for sharing the video
above. He gathered over 500 frames for over an hour to create a 30-second time
lapse of the passage of asteroid 1994 PC1 near Earth on January 18, 2022.

A large stony asteroid safely passed Earth on January 18, 2022. Its estimated
size was around 3,280 feet (about 1 km or .6 of a mile), around 2 1/2 times the
height of the Empire State Building. As you can see from this asteroid’s label –
(7482) 1994 PC1 – we’ve known about it since 1994. It is classified as a
Potentially Hazardous Asteroid due to its size and relatively close flybys of
our planet. An asteroid of this size strikes Earth approximately every 600,000
years.

But we had nothing to fear from 1994 PC1 at its 2022 close approach. Closest
approach to Earth occurred on January 18, 2022, at 4:51 p.m. EST (21:51
UTC). This approach was the closest for this asteroid for at least the next 200
years for which astronomers have calculated its orbit.

The speeding asteroid passed 1.2 million miles (1.93 million km) from Earth, or
about 5.15 times the Earth-moon distance. That’s a very safe distance!

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View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Greg Redfern in Virginia also caught
asteroid 1994 PC1 on the night of January 18, 2022. It’s the yellowish streak in
this image. He wrote: “1994 P1 was visible in my eVscope 2.0 as a
stellar-looking object and showed movement in timed exposures almost
immediately. It displays a hint of yellow-golden color.” Thank you, Greg!

Asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1 passing close to Earth on January 18, 2022, by Kevin
Cintron (Sociedad de Astronomía del Caribe), from Ponce, Puerto Rico.

This asteroid passes us regularly. Here’s an image of asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1
during a flyby of Earth in 1997. The space rock appears as a trail due to its
very fast apparent motion. Image via Sormano Astronomical Observatory in Italy.
Orbit of large asteroid 1994 PC1, via Tomruen/ Wikimedia Commons.

POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS ASTEROID 1994 PC1

Robert McNaught discovered asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1 at the Siding Spring
Observatory in Australia on August 9, 1994. With its trajectory in hand,
astronomers found the space rock on earlier images from other observations that
date back to September 1974. With 47 years of observations, its orbit is well
established.

The huge space rock is traveling at 43,754 miles per hour (19.56 kilometers per
second) relative to Earth. The considerable speed enabled amateur astronomers to
spot the fast asteroid. It appeared as a point of light, similar to a star,
passing in front of background stars over the course of the evening. Asteroid
(7482) 1994 PC1 was shining in our sky at around magnitude 10. An object at 10th
magnitude is a decent target for observers using a 6-inch or larger backyard
telescope from a dark-sky site.

See a video comparing the sizes of some of the known asteroids.

Asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1 was in the constellation Pisces on January 18, 2022,
the night of closest approach to Earth. Illustration by Eddie Irizarry/
Stellarium.

HOW OBSERVERS WITH TELESCOPES SPOTTED IT

Sky enthusiasts using a small telescope pointed at the correct time and location
were able to spot asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1. For North America, observers with
backyard telescopes had the best opportunity to see the huge asteroid hours
after the January 18 close approach (see charts below). They were able to detect
the space rock’s motion thanks to its size and proximity. When an asteroid such
as this passes close to fixed background stars, its movement is more noticeable.

Steven Bellavia, who created the video at the top of this post, used another
good technique for spotting the asteroid. He attached a camera to the telescope
and took time-exposures of several seconds. Then he pointed the camera and
telescope at reference stars in the trajectory of the asteroid. Our charts below
show reference stars in the asteroid’s vicinity on January 18, 2022. An image
exposed for some seconds shows the space rock’s motion as a streak of light,
while shorter exposures reveal the asteroid as a point of light that appears in
different locations in the images.

Despite the full moon on January 18, the asteroid was easy to locate with small
telescopes, since the moon was located at a very good distance in the sky from
the area of the space rock. Prior to its close approach, experienced observers
agreed that asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1 would be one of the easiest asteroids to
locate, with a telescope pointed at the correct position, at the right time.

Although asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1 would have been an excellent target for
astronomers using the Goldstone Radar at California, unfortunately the DSS-14
radar antenna was not able to study the space rock due to maintenance.

FINDER MAPS FOR ASTEROID 7482 ON JANUARY 18

Location of asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1 on January 18, 2022, around 7:25 pm EST
(January 19 at 00:25 UTC). Observers using a computerized or GoTo telescope can
point the instrument at the reference star HIP 8210 to easily detect the space
rock, which will appear as a “slowly moving star” in front of the stars.
Illustration by Eddie Irizarry/ Stellarium. January 18, 2022, at 7:45 pm EST
(January 19 at 00:45 UTC). Have a computerized or GoTo telescope? Point it at
the faint galaxy IC 1723 at that time to spot the huge asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1
slowly moving in front of the stars. Illustration by Eddie Irizarry/ Stellarium.
Location of asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1 on January 18, 2022, at 8:45 pm EST
(January 19 at 01:45 UTC). The space rock will pass not far from where we see
star HIP 7620. Observers can point their optics at the reference star and
compare the view just 5 minutes later to detect the “slowly moving asteroid”
(slow from our perspective). Illustration by Eddie Irizarry/ Stellarium. January
18, 2022, at 9:35 pm EST (January 19 at 02:35 UTC). At that time, the space rock
passes by star HIP 7184. Illustration by Eddie Irizarry/ Stellarium. On January
18, 2022, at 10:00 pm EST (January 19 at 03:00 UTC), observers can point their
GoTo or computerized telescope at star HIP 7011. Just 5 minutes later, the space
rock will pass almost in front of the reference star! Illustration by Eddie
Irizarry/ Stellarium.

Bottom line: A large asteroid, about .6 mile (1 km) in diameter, safely passed
Earth on January 18, 2022. The asteroid never posed a threat to Earth. At its
closest, it passed more than five times the moon’s distance.

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Posted
January 19, 2022
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Space

EDDIE IRIZARRY

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Eddie Irizarry of the Sociedad de Astronomía del Caribe (Astronomical Society of
the Caribbean) has been a NASA Solar System Ambassador since 2004. He loves
public outreach and has published multiple astronomy articles for EarthSky, as
well as for newspapers in Puerto Rico. He has also offered dozens of conferences
related to asteroids and comets at the Arecibo Observatory. Asteroid
33012EddieIrizarry, a 7.8 km space rock, has been named in his honor.

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