Planet Killer Asteroid 1997 NC1 Close Fly By To Earth Tomorrow June 27th 2026!

James Kaufman, World News Report Today. Planet killer asteroid 1997 NC1 is about to fly by Earth tomorrow, June 27, 2026. This is an extremely close call, and this is a planet killer. This is an asteroid, not a space rock or meteor, and it was first discovered in 1997. It's an inner solar system space rock Which means it's been flying around the inner solar system for all these years Now we're going to go over all the data on it over at JPL But we'll read this real quickly first It's often said that Earth is in a shooting gallery This weekend, amateur astronomers can watch one of the big bullets streak by Here you're looking at asteroid 1997 NC1 This was taken yesterday on June 25, 2026. On June 27, the near-Earth asteroid 152637 or 1997 NC1, which is basically a planet killer, will fly past Earth at a distance of 2.6 million kilometers. Now, there's no danger of a strike tomorrow, but the flyby is significant. This is a large kilometer-class asteroid between 3,150 feet and one mile across, making its closest approach in more than 400 years. Again, we will look at the JPL data, and it looks really, really close on the orbital models. It will be visible to any and all backyard astronomers. Even a 6-inch telescope is enough to see it, if not just binoculars. The asteroid will brighten to about the 10th magnitude as it races through our solar system. This is actually an inner solar system near-Earth object or asteroid, obviously first discovered in 1979. At close approach, the speedy rock will move so quickly that observers can watch it drift against the background stars in only a few minutes, as you see here. The flyby is very unusually close for an object so large. The last encounter that we had by a kilometer-class asteroid was in January 2022 by 1994 PC-1. Statistically speaking, it's a once-in-a-decade event. In 1997, NC1 struck Earth to blast a crater over 10 kilometers-plus wide and loft enough dust to alter the global climate for many years to come. There is, however, no danger of a collision for at least 100 years. Over the weekend, NASA astronomers will use a deep space network radar to investigate the asteroid in case it ever becomes a hazard in the distant future, which it is expected to be. asteroids are rocky airless remnants left over from the formation of our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago often referred to as minor planets they orbit the sun but are too small and irregular shape to be classified as true planets they range in size from tiny rubble piles less than 10 meters across to massive bodies like Vesta which spans roughly 530 kilometers in diameter although this one is much larger at over 650 plus kilometers, 1997 NC1 or 152637 look how far we have to go in to see its orbit this is the inner solar system we've been very lucky not to have to have well come into contact with this rock before it's at a heck of an inclination you can see that well that's Mercury the dots are almost on top of each other they say it's about six times as far as our moon although it doesn't look like it in these diagrams here a heck of an inclination not moving very fast but the rock is so large again it could be a planet killer were to hit Earth again that's 1997 NC1 let's get some close approach data see what time tomorrow and see well what they have to say about it now they've been watching it for 28.97 years and they only told us about it today, June 26, 2026. 1,568 total observations, condition code zero, never seen that before. I guess with that many observations, they know exactly where it's headed and they think it's going to hit Earth in about 100 years. It was seen first by automatic software again in 1997. And I've never seen a condition code of zero. Let's see what time the close approach is tomorrow. And all right. June 27th, tomorrow at 7.16 a.m. Central Time. I've got down to one second. It's going to be the close flyby, if you will. It's going to be .01715 astronomical units. The thing is really, really moving. It looks like it's moving at 8.89 kilometers per second. Remember, it's 3,250 to 5,200, 5,400 feet in diameter. A complete planet killer, although it will miss us this time. To give you some idea, I did the math, and this is less than 100,000 miles away, right in the 900,000 miles away from Earth, with our sun being 93.3 million miles away. So this isn't even 1 million miles away. It doesn't sound like a very close approach to Earth to me, but they did say it was a 1 in a 10-year situation. So Big Rock, man, I don't like how they tell us the day before, even if there's no chance of an impact. That said, please share this information. Please, if you have a small telescope or some binoculars, 7 in the morning or 7.16 a.m., it should be visible. And there is some information at JPL as to which direction to look for that. Please subscribe if you haven't. Give us a thumbs up, ring that bell for critical future updates, and remember that anything's possible in the Mazzaro world. God bless you all.