The moment in which an astronomical event that had previously been calculated by scientists is confirmed never ceases to amaze. The asteroid 1994 PC1, just discovered in the mid-1990s, had in its schedule to approach our planet on the night of January 18. So space scientists pointed their observatories at the correct coordinates to watch the rock pass through the star-filled sky.
A specific observatory, the new Guille y de Solà telescope (TGS) from the Pujalt Observatory, located in Barcelona, Spain, captured the trajectory sequence of asteroid 1994 PC1. In addition, he recorded his passage in a video that they published on the YouTube account, which the portal shares. 20 minutes.
According to the information from the aforementioned portal, this specific asteroid it is 1 kilometer in diameter. It passed through its closest point to Earth, approximately 1.9 million kilometers, is would be the equivalent of five times the distance between our world and the Moon.
Therefore, it was a spectacle that astronomers and space enthusiasts did not want to lose details of. This is how they followed it up and in addition to capturing it on video, they managed to record new data on this rock that makes its translation process around the Sun, with orbits close to the Earth.
The proximity of the asteroid with the world
Josep Maria Llenas, astronomer who was in the Observatory Astronomical Park de Pujalt offered statements to 20 minutes, in which he explained the follow-up that has been done to the asteroid to finish ruling out that 1994 PC1 is considered a danger to Earth, due to its impact probabilities.
“This asteroid poses no danger to Earth at this time. However, the follow-up of this and many others help the scientific community to be able to adjust close approximations much better in the future”, explained Llenas.
Scientists detail that the asteroid completes its orbit around the sun in regarding 570 days. But that does not mean that at this time it will make a new approach, because it has an oval movement, like all space rocks that transit in regions close to our world.
Enjoy the video of the passage of 1994 PC1, captured by the Guille y de Solà telescope (TGS) of the Pujalt Observatory.
