‘Potentially dangerous’ Eiffel Tower-size asteroid passing Earth in days | Science | News
The asteroid, known as 4660 Nereus, will pass by planet Earth on December 11. The 330-meter-long asteroid, which is larger than the Shard in London, travels at speeds of up to four miles per second.
However, 4660 Nereus is believed not to pose a threat and instead is expected to pass some 2.4 million miles away from Earth.
This is about ten times the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
Despite this, the US space agency has described the rock as “potentially dangerous” due to a series of close passes planned in the next few years.
According to the website of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a “potentially dangerous” asteroid is at least 150 meters in size and 4.6 million miles from Earth’s orbit.
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While the rock will move quite far from Earth, Spacereference.org reports that 4660 Nereus will make about a dozen close passes over the next few decades.
The closest is expected to be Valentine’s Day in 2060, when it is said to be just 745,000 miles away.
However, the asteroid was first detected by scientists in 1982.
Space Reference states that the asteroid orbits the Sun every 664 days.
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NASA’s website suggests that by September 2022 the Didymos system will be less than 7 million miles from Earth.
However, 4660 Nereus is not the first asteroid to come close to Earth this year.
Asteroid 1994 WR12, said to be about twice the size of Big Ben, passed Earth at 3.8 million miles on November 29.
NASA says there is currently no “significant chance” of an asteroid hitting Earth in the next century.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article was titled ‘NASA warns’ potentially dangerous ‘an asteroid the size of the Eiffel Tower is hurtling towards Earth’. Asteroid 4660 Nereus is not hurtling toward Earth, but must pass a distance of 2.4 million miles. We are happy to clarify this.
