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A gigantic , " potentially hazardous " space John Rock grown than the Eiffel Tower will enterEarth’sorbital path on Dec. 11,according to NASA .
The egg - shapedasteroid , named 4660 Nereus , is 1,082 feet ( 330 meters ) long and will bankrupt into Earth ’s orbit traveling at 14,700 mph ( 23,700 klick / h ) on Saturday , Dec. 11 . Thankfully for all of our weekend plans , the asteroid is expected to skitter past Earth at some aloofness without making shock , but it will still be close to us than it has been in 20 age .
An artist’s impression of a distant asteroid approaching Earth.
Nereus — named after the Greek sea god who was the son of Gaia , the personification of the Earth — will be roughly 2.4 million miles aside ( 3.86 million klick ) , around 10 times the distance between Earth and themoon . This may fathom like an enormous col , but by cosmic monetary standard , it ’s actually a endocarp ’s throw away .
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NASAflags any space object that fall within 120 million miles ( 193 million km ) of Earth as a " near - Earth object " and any fast - affect object within 4.65 million miles ( 7.5 million kilometer ) as " potentially wild . " Once flagged , astronomers closely supervise the objects , looking for any deviation from their predicted flight that could put them on a hit course with Earth .
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First discovered in 1982 , Nereus ' 1.82 - yr cranial orbit of the sun brings it tight to Earth nearly every 10 twelvemonth . Because Nereus visit our region of thesolar systemso frequently NASA and the Japanese distance means JAXA once considered pick up a sampling from it using JAXA ’s Hayabusa spacecraft , but the agencies finally settled upon a different asteroid ( 25143 Itokawa ) alternatively .
NASA projects that Nereus will make its next close approaches to Earth on March 2 , 2031 and November 2050 . An even closer , tantalizingly close visit is forecast to occur on Feb. 14 , 2060 , when Nereus may add up within roughly 0.74 million miles ( 1.2 million km ) of Earth . This will put the mineral - rich space rock at a tempting three moons distance from our planet .
That ’s because beyond being a target for a potential robotic craft beam by NASA , Nereus is also an tempting award for prospective space minelaying . Asterank , a database that monitors more than 600,000 asteroid , estimates that the asteroid hasnickel , ironandcobaltdeposits worth a collective $ 4.71 billion .
If we ever do pick out an asteroid head straight for us , blank agency are work on a answer . On Nov. 23 , NASA launch a ballistic capsule as part of its Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission in edict to redirect an asteroid by ramming it off course , Live Science antecedently reported . Chinais also in the early planning stages of an asteroid - ramming charge ; they propose that by slamming 23 of their Long March 5 rockets into the asteroid Bennu , they would be able-bodied to divert it from apotentially catastrophic impact with Earth , Live Science previously reported .
Originally publish on Live Science .
