Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1 close encounter: image and video – 17 Jan. 2022
We captured several images of the potentially hazardous asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1 while safely approaching us. We made a still picture and nice animation.
Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1. 17 Jan. 2022.
The image above comes from a single, 60-second exposure, remotely taken with the “Elena” (PlaneWave 17″+Paramount ME+SBIG STL-6303E) robotic unit available at Virtual Telescope. The telescope tracked the fast apparent motion of the asteroid, this is why stars show as long trails, while the asteroid looks like a sharp dot of light in the center of the image, marked by an arrow.
Using all the images of the sequence, we could make the animation below, showing 1994 PC1 in motion against the stars.
Potentially Hazardous asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1. 17 Jan. 2022.
At the imaging time, asteroid (7482) 1991 PC1 was at about 2.7 millions of km from us.
This 750 – 1350 meters large asteroid will reach its minimum distance (about 2 millions of km, 5 times the average lunar distance) from us on 18 Jan. 2022, at 21:51 UTC (source: Nasa/JPL). Of course, there are no risks at all for our planet.
*We will show 1994 PC1 live at the fly-by time! *
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