There is no need to worry, as it will be about ten times farther than the Moon, so it will not pose a threat to us.
When will it get closer to Earth?
Asteroid 4660 Nereus, as wide as three football fields ( 330 meters in diameter ) and as tall as the iconic Eiffel Tower, is expected to pass more than 10 times the average distance between our planet and the Moon on December 11. a speed of 6.58 km / s.
Nereus is an Apollo-class asteroid, with an orbit that places it in fairly regular proximity to Earth, orbiting the Sun half as often as Earth.
In the future, the closest it will be before 2100 is 2060, when it will be about three times farther away than the Moon.
It is believed to be an E-type asteroid, common to the inner part of the asteroid belt and likely formed from the crust of a larger planetary body destroyed over a long time.
The asteroid was discovered in 1982 and will represent NASA’s second planetary defense test mission in the world. This is the DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission and it will involve crashing a spacecraft into this small asteroid to try to change its orbit slightly. The first to star in this ambitious show will be Dimorphos. The mission will be initially tested on November 24 and will try to alter the trajectory of the asteroid Dimorphos by impacting it with an explosive-laden device .
