An artist's depiction of an asteroid. The image was taken by Erik Simonsen.
NASA says that a space rock larger than the Eiffel Tower will enter Earth's atmosphere next week.
The asteroid is 1,082 feet long and will break into Earth's atmosphere on Saturday, December 11. The asteroid is expected to skim past Earth at some distance, but it will still be closer to us than it has been in 20 years.
It will be around 10 times the distance between Earth and the moon. It is actually a stone's throw away, even though it sounds like an enormous gap.
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NASA flags any space object that comes within 120 million miles of Earth as a "near-Earth object" and any fast- moving object as a "potentially hazardous" object. Astronomers watch for any deviation from their predicted trajectory that could put them on a collision course with Earth.
It is close to Earth almost every 10 years because of the 1.82 year sun's elliptical path. NASA and the Japanese space agency JAXA once considered using JAXA's Hayabusa spaceship to collect a sample from the region of the solar system that is visited by Nereus so frequently.
The next close approaches to Earth will be on March 2, 2031 and November 2050 according to NASA. The visit is expected to come within 0.74 million miles of Earth in 2060.
Beyond being a target for a potential robotic craft sent by NASA, Nereus is also an attractive prize for prospective space mining. According to Asterank, the asteroid has nickel, iron and cobalt deposits worth $4.71 billion.
Space agencies are working on a solution if we ever spot an asteroid. Live Science previously reported that on Nov. 23, NASA launched a spaceship to try to hit an asteroid off course. Live Science previously reported that China is in the early stages of planning an asteroid-ramming mission that would divert the asteroid Bennu from a catastrophic impact with Earth.
Live Science published the original article.
