A Huge Asteroid Is Flying by Earth Today: How to Watch and What to Know

An asteroid is speeding past our planet. There is nothing to worry about because you know what you need to know about this near Earth object.

The asteroid will make its closest approach to Earth at 4:51 pm. The time is 1:45 p.m. It will come to within 1.23 million miles of our planet at that time. It is more than five times the average distance to the Moon.

The Virtual Telescope Project 2.0 is hosting a live stream of the close approach. The time is 11:00 a.m. The time is PST. You can see the action at the feed.

The founder of the project said that opportunities to see bright and relatively close asteroids like 1994 PC1 don't happen very often. Masi told me that amateur astronomer using small telescopes between 100mm to 150mm in diameter should be able to see the object crossing the Cetus, Pisces, and Andromeda constellations.

The main robotic unit of the group is located in Ceccano, Italy, which is south of Rome. Masi said that the automated device will track the apparent motion of 1994 PC1 across the backdrop of stars, which should result in some very nice images. The skies are expected to be clear, so we are keeping our fingers crossed to have a great view and share the experience with the world. The asteroid is moving at a fast pace.

1994 PC1 is a potentially hazardous asteroid and a near Earth object, but it poses no threat to Earth. The table shows that 1994 PC1 won't be any closer than this for at least 200 years. The asteroid came a little closer in 1933, when it passed by at a distance of 699,000 miles.

There are an additional 3000 objects added to the list each year. The space agency has upgraded its impact monitoring system, called Sentry-II, which is able to calculate impact odds as low as a few chances in 10 million.

NASA's upgraded impact monitoring system could prevent an asteroid apocalypse.