Giant Asteroid Flies by Earth: Here's How People Are Reacting to It

An asteroid bigger than the tallest building on Earth safely flew by on January 19. The giant rock, named 7482 (1994 PC1), zipped past our planet, nearly 1.93 million kilometres away. That's more than five times the distance between Earth and Moon. It has been classified as "potentially hazardous” because of its size and its regular close visits to our planet, and not because it poses any threat to us. The asteroid came closest to Earth at 3:21am IST.

Astronomers say this will remain the closest approach of the asteroid for at least the next 200 years. They added that regular close visits by this asteroid should not lead to fear among people as its trajectory has a margin of error of only 133km.

The rock was travelling at a speed of 19.56kmph, relative to Earth, when it flew by us. The considerable speed with which it was travelling should have enabled amateur astronomers to spot it. It should have appeared as a point of light in the night sky. Earth Sky has shared a video of the asteroid moving rapidly in the sky. It said the video was recorded in Puerto Rico and the asteroid was visible despite a Full Moon on January 18 (local time) since the Moon was at a good distance from the asteroid's path. See the video below (published by kevinizooropa):

Many people shared their excitement on Twitter at being able to see the asteroid or even after simply knowing that something like this had happened.

“While we were busy surviving another day, another year, another job, an asteroid bigger than Burj Khalifa just passed by…Notice the shooting star, which steals the show. Money and jobs are the biggest distraction to our real growth and finding answers to our existence,” said a user.

Some users have also shared images of the asteroid.

Many just found an opportunity to have a little fun, now that the celestial event passed safely. Check out their reactions below:

The asteroid was discovered by Australian astronomer Robert McNaught in 1994.