NASA warns of two giant asteroids heading towards Earth, arriving in December

Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —

Scientist NASA has issued a warning about an asteroid flying close to Earth in mid-December.

NASA recognizes the potential arrival of an asteroid called 4660 Nereus as the ‘Potentially Hazardous Asteroid’ (PHA). NASA is said to be tracking an asteroid as high as 1,000 feet or about 304.8 meters that is heading to Earth.

Reported from Daily Record, the asteroid is larger than 90 percent of asteroids in general, but not the largest.

Fortunately, the asteroid will reportedly not get close enough to Earth to cause any damage.

An Asteroid As Big As 3 Football Fields

NASA predicts the giant asteroid will pass Earth on December 11. The asteroid has been classified as 4660 Nereus which NASA considers extremely dangerous.

The US space agency said the asteroid was nearly three times the size of a football field, or even roughly the size of the Eiffel tower.

Although it could be dangerous to hit Earth, NASA says the asteroid will fly past the planet at a distance of about 3.9 million kilometers. That distance was ten times greater than the area between Earth and the moon, so it shouldn’t cause any problems on Earth.

In the past, scientists have considered missions to asteroids. But it has never been done until now.

In fact, asteroids that are potentially dangerous to Earth are not uncommon. In September, reports revealed a massive asteroid roughly 1,120 feet (341 meters) wide will pass Earth in 2029 at a distance of about 19,000 miles.

The presence of the asteroid will make it one of the closest encounters between natural Earthlings and asteroids. Just like 4660 Nereus, the asteroid shouldn’t cause any possible impact for another 100 years.

Another asteroid called 2021RL3 is currently known to be within 1,804,450 miles of Earth. For comparison, the Moon is 238,855 miles from Earth, so the distance from the asteroid is still quite far.

Invention and Future 4660 Nereus

Eleanor F. Helin originally discovered 4660 Nereus 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. The asteroid orbits the sun every 664 days.

However, scientists predict that Nereus will not approach Earth again until March 2031.

After that, Nereus is not expected to approach again in 2050, although its closest approach is not expected until February 2060, roughly forty years after it first approached Earth.

(ttf/fjr)

[Gambas:Video CNN]

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