Huge asteroid will fly past Earth today

There’s an asteroid headed toward earth, and it’s scheduled to zip by at a safe distance at around 4:51 p.m.

Franck Marchis, senior planetary astronomer for the SETI Institute, joined us today with details on the asteroid that will be flying by Earth today.

The asteroid, (7482)1994 PC1, is roughly the length of the Golden Gate Bridge and will pass us just over one million miles from Earth.

It’s not quite a “Don’t Look Up” danger scenario, but (7482) 1994 PC1 will come close to Earth multiple times in the near future, classifying it as a potentially hazardous asteroid.

Unistellar, the telescope startup on a mission to bring the wonders of deep space to everyday citizens, has alerted its civilian astronomers that (7482) 1994 PC1 will be close enough to catch a glimpse of throughout January in the Southern Hemisphere, already captured by a Unistellar ambassador here.