Asteroid bigger than world's tallest building to fly past Earth

An asteroid bigger than the world’s tallest building is to fly past earth on Tuesday night.

The asteroid, named 7482, will pass within 1.2 million miles of the Earth at a speed of 47,344 mph – which experts say will be the closest to the planet for the next two centuries.

Spanning a length of is 1052m (3,451ft) across, the space rock is larger than earth’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which stands at 830m (2,723ft).

NASA’s Centre for Near Earth Object Studies have said the asteroid will reach be at its closest to Earth at around 9.51pm on January 18.

Near-Earth #asteroid 1994 PC1 (~1 km wide) is very well known and has been studied for decades by our #PlanetaryDefense experts. Rest assured, 1994 PC1 will safely fly past our planet 1.2 million miles away next Tues., Jan. 18.

Track it yourself here: https://t.co/JMAPWiirZh pic.twitter.com/35pgUb1anq
— NASA Asteroid Watch (@AsteroidWatch) January 12, 2022

Experts have assured that the asteroid poses no threat to Earth and will pass more than five times the moon’s distance from the planet.

It comes after NASA launched a spacecraft, Double Asteroid Redirection Test, deliberately into an asteroid for the first time in history in November last year.

The space agency said it was a “critical step” in demonstrating its ability to protect the planet from danger.