A huge asteroid that is bigger than the world's tallest building is to pass 'near Earth' on Tuesday (January 18).
NASA said the space rock, named 7482 (1994 PC1), is more than a kilometre wide at 1,052m (3,451ft).
This compares to Dubai's Burj Khalifa - the tallest building on Earth - which is 830m (2,723ft).
And while it is a 'near-Earth' asteroid, it will soar safely past our planet.
At its closest, it will pass more than five times the moon’s distance from Earth.
Robert McNaught discovered asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1 at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia on August 9 1994.
NASA's Asteroid Watch Twitter account said: “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 Defence 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.
