4660 Nereus Will Hurtle Past Earth

An asteroid is on the way towards Earth but you don’t need to panic!

Named “4660 Nereus”, the asteroid as high as the Eiffel Tower will pass within about 3.9 million kilometers of the planet on 11 December, according to NASA‘s asteroid tracker.

Is this asteroid going to hit Earth? No. Despite being classified “Potentially Hazardous Asteroid” (PHA), the 330 meter-wide rock is unlikely to damage our planet.

The asteroid coming to Earth is also expected to pass close to the planet in the coming decades. 14 February 2060 will mark one of the usual events that rarely occur in space when 4660 Nereus will pass the pale blue dot approximately 1.2 million kilometers away.

To compare, the Moon is an average of 384.400 kilometers away from Earth. In addition to 2060, there will be two more passes in March 2031 and November 2050.

What to know about asteroid 4660 Nereus

Orbiting the Sun every 664 days, Near-Earth Asteroid 4660 Nereus was discovered in 1982. As it has a close orbit to Earth, scientists have considered exploring it, according to an article published in 2009.

“It is ranked among the top 3% of the most accessible near-Earth asteroids,” the piece says. “Nereus was an early target for the NASA Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission that visited asteroid Eros instead. It was also the original target for Japan’s Hayabusa spacecraft, which ultimately visited Asteroid Itokawa.”

A journey to the aforementioned asteroid would take 426 days through a space mission.

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