Asteroid bigger than any building on Earth to soar past the planet

A giant asteroid, bigger than any building on Earth, is expected to soar past the planet on Tuesday.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches with the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, spacecraft onboard from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches with the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, spacecraft onboard from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.  © IMAGO / ZUMA Press

Called 7482 (1994 PC1), the asteroid is more than 3,280 feet in diameter.

Its size means it is bigger than the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which, at 2,722 feet, is the world’s tallest building. Its more than twice as big as New York's Empire State Building.

But the asteroid poses no threat to Earth. At its closest, it will pass more than five times the moon’s distance from the planet.

Robert McNaught discovered asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1 at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia on August 9, 1994.

NASA’s Asteroid Watch Twitter account posted: "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."

The agency’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office monitors the skies to find, track, and monitor near-Earth objects.

NASA is also looking at ways to intercept potentially hazardous asteroids with its double asteroid redirection test (DART) mission.

The mission aims to prove a spacecraft can autonomously navigate to a target asteroid and intentionally collide with it, smashing it off course.

Cover photo: IMAGO / ZUMA Press

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