The biggest asteroid in the year is rushing towards Earth

An asteroid 1.1km long, larger than the world's tallest building Burj Khalifa, will be in about two weeks.

The asteroid 2002 AJ129 is in the "potentially dangerous" category according to the classification of the US Aerospace Agency (NASA) that will fly over our planet at 107,826km / h, according to the International Business Times. . The speed of the 2002 AJ129 is almost 15 times faster than the fastest aircraft in the world today, the North American X-15 supersonic aircraft with a maximum speed of 7,300 km / h.

This asteroid is about 1.1km in diameter, much longer than the building in Dubai, which is over 0.8km tall. As expected, the 2002 AJ129 will be closer to Earth on February 4 at a distance of nearly 4,208,641km.

Illustrating asteroid 2002 AJ129 is about to fly past Earth.(Photo: Oliver Denker).

For comparison, the distance between the Earth and the Moon is 384,400km. NASA places the asteroids into the "dangerous" group if they reach Earth within 7.403,000 km.

This is the largest celestial body that crosses our planet this year. Previous studies have shown that if a large meteorite hits this Earth, the result will be a minor period. The impact of the collision will cause the average temperature across the world to drop by as much as 8 degrees Celsius, according to a 2016 study on the effects of a 1km-diameter asteroid collision.

Scientists warn of a serious global impact that will last several years, turning the planet into a darker, cooler and drier place, said Charles Bardeen, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. a presentation before the American Geophysical Union in 2016. In the worst case, soot will survive in the atmosphere for 10 years, while the dust layer takes 6 years to settle on the ground.

However, NASA said that the 2002 AJ129 was not capable of crashing into Earth. Currently, the agency cannot deflect asteroids that crash towards the Earth but can reduce the impact and take measures to protect lives and property, including evacuation of affected areas and relocation of critical infrastructure.