The asteroid is nearly three times the size of a football field and about the size of the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower is about 324 meters or 1,063 feet high. NASA predicts that the giant asteroid will pass Earth on December 11, 2021. (Read also; Earth was almost hit by an asteroid, its trajectory is only 3,000 kilometers away )
Quoted from the bgr.com page, NASA said the asteroid will fly past this earth at a distance of about 3.9 million kilometers. That distance was ten times farther than the area between the earth and the moon, so it shouldn’t be a problem for the earth. As a reference, the distance between the moon and the earth is about 238,855 miles.
Originally the asteroid 4660 Nereus was discovered by Eleanor F Helin in 1982. Nereus is just one of several asteroids belonging to the Apollo group. All asteroids in this group are known to pass close to Earth as they orbit the sun.
Asteroids orbit the sun every 664 days. Scientists predict asteroid 4660 Nereus will not approach Earth again until March 2031. After that, it is expected to approach again in 2050. (Read also; Japan Successfully Captured the Rare Phenomenon of Asteroid Collision with Jupiter )
Potentially Hazardous Asteroids have been recorded flying near the earth several times. In September scientists detected a large asteroid roughly 1,120 feet in size that would pass Earth in 2029 at some 19,000 miles away.
It is one of the closest distances between Earth and an asteroid. Just like 4660 Nereus, the asteroid shouldn’t have any impact for another 100 years. Another asteroid, called 2021RL3, was detected hovering within 1,804,450 miles of Earth. This asteroid is expected to fly near Earth in February 2060.
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