Super rare mega asteroid twice as big as Burj Khalifa to crash into Earth orbit

A super rare mega asteroid double the size of the world's tallest building is set to crash into Earth's orbit next week.

Given the catchy title of 363505 (2003 UC20) by NASA, the asteroid is a whopping 1.2miles in diameter – or 6,230 feet – which works out the same as putting two Burj Khalifa buildings on top of each other. The giant rock will hurtle into our atmosphere on November 2 at a speed of around 7.96 kilometres per second, and has been given the rarity of two by the experts.

The two means it comes to Earth roughly once a year, although it hasn't been seen near Earth since January, 2022. The boffins first spotted the asteroid in Earth's atmosphere on June 4, 1901, and the last approach data calculated so far is April 22, 2200.

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It doesn't look like the asteroid will have any dangerous impact on Earth, unless it veers hugely off course during its journey towards us. But if it does, the damage caused by an asteroid twice the size of the giant skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, could be devastating – and also take NASA totally by surprise, if previous reports are to be believed.

Earlier this year, NASA warned that a planet-killer asteroid will strike Earth on average once every 600,000 to 700,000 years.

New research by James Garvin, chief scientist of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre, suggested that impacts of space rocks over half a mile across could be three times more frequent than previous estimates – although 363505 (2003 UC20) is not thought to be one of those that could kill us all.

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“An object that size would, apart from causing massive local devastation, blow a huge mass of the planet’s atmosphere into space. On Earth, things get messy, particularly when you throw a lot of energy at it.”

"It would be in the range of serious crap happening,” Garvin said.

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