Baku 15˚C Mostly cloudy

Asteroid as tall as Eiffel Tower coming towards Earth

Headlines 12:43 09 Nov, 2021

The asteroid named 4660 Nereus is classified as a 'Potentially Hazardous Asteroid’ (PHA)

Asteroid as tall as Eiffel Tower coming towards Earth

An asteroid as tall as the Eiffel Tower is coming towards Earth in December - but thankfully will pose no threat to humanity, Qazet.az informs referring to the Mirror.

Almost triple the size of a football pitch, the asteroid named 4660 Nereus is classified as a 'Potentially Hazardous Asteroid’ (PHA), reports the Daily Record.

NASA's asteroid monitor predicts it will come close to Earth on December 11. Impact from the asteroid could be devastating, but thankfully, it doesn’t pose a threat to the planet.

The asteroid will fly by the planet at a distance of 3.9 million kilometers - a distance greater than 10 times of that between the Earth and the moon.

Nereus is 330 meters long, which makes it larger than 90% of asteroids, but tiny compared to large asteroids, according to Space Reference.

The asteroid orbits the sun every 664 days though it is predicted not to come close to the Earth again until March 2, 2031 and then November 2050.

Its closest approach will not happen for another 40 years in February 2060.