NASA said that an asteroid the size of the Eiffel Tower is currently heading towards Earth. However, do not panic: according to the US Space Agency, the rock will lose our planet by 3.8 million km.
GVSource: independent
The asteroid is 330 meters wide 4660 Nereus It will pass Earth on December 11th. According to NASA, the probability that the rock will pose a danger is small: calculations will show that the asteroid will fly over our planet 12 more times in the coming decades, the closest being on February 14, 2060: “barely” two million kilometers. By comparison, the distance between Earth and the Moon is 384,400 km.
The existence of the asteroid was discovered in 1982. It is of interest to scientists because it is potentially accessible to spacecraft due to its close orbit to Earth. There are currently no plans for such an expedition, but this scenario has been contemplated several times in the past.
It is not uncommon for large asteroids to approach Earth. In March, another boulder the size of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco came two million kilometers from our planet. NASA classifies asteroids as “hazardous” if they approach Earth at a distance of less than 7.5 million km and are more than 150 meters in diameter.
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