Asteroid, larger than the tallest structure in world, to skim past Earth next month

The space rock has been dubbed 2002 AJ129 and it's bigger than the half-mile tall Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai.

An asteroid, larger than the tallest building on Earth, Burj Khalifa, is set to skim past the planet early next month, according to space experts.

The space rock has been dubbed 2002 AJ129 and it's bigger than the half-mile tall Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai.

As per reports, the asteroid will pass Earth on February 4, missing our planet by 2.6 million miles.


That's still close enough to classify it as a "near-Earth object" and "potentially hazardous" by US space agency NASA.

If the 1.1km-wide asteroid was to strike us, it would likely send up enough soil and dust to blanket the planet and plunge Earth into darkness.

Asteroids are celestial objects that are smaller than planets, which are irregularly shaped and lack fixed orbits.
In our solar system, most asteroids originate from the asteroid belt, a zone between Mars and Jupiter, where these objects are scattered about.