NASA's Asteroid Watch Twitter account posted that the asteroid is "very well known" and has been studied for decades.

The asteroid, called 7482 (1994 PC1), measures more than a kilometre in width, at 1,052m (3,451ft).

Near-Earth #asteroid 1994 PC1 (~1 km wide) is very well known and has been studied for decades by our #PlanetaryDefense experts.

It tweeted on 12 January that the asteroid is "very well known and has been studied for decades by our #PlanetaryDefense experts".

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