NASA Detects Asteroid as Big as Eiffel Tower Passing by Earth Next Month; Should We Worry?

NASA said an asteroid the size of the Eiffel Tower is traveling towards Earth and will approach its closest approach right before Christmas. The space agency classified 4660 Nereus as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid.

Despite being larger than 90 percent of previous asteroids at 330m, NASA's asteroid monitor has concluded it presents no threat to civilization. Space specialists claim that Nereus is simply passing by for a wave and a talk. Nereus travels at a speed of 6.578 kilometers (4.087 miles) per second, Jerusalem Post said.

According to the Independent UK, the asteroid will approach Earth in the next years and decades. In fact, NASA expects that the same asteroid will come near to Earth 12 more times in the following 175 years.

Asteroid Ida - Five Frame Mosaic — This view of the asteroid 243 Ida is a mosaic of five image frames acquired by the Galileo spacecraft's solid-state imaging system at ranges of 3,057 to 3,821 kilometers (1,900 to 2,375 miles) on August 28, 1993, about 3-1/2 minutes before the spacecraft made its closest approach to the asteroid. NASA/JPL

Eiffel Tower-Sized Asteroid to Pass by Earth in December

The Sun said Asteroid 4660 Nereus would pass near 3.9 million kilometers of Earth on December 11, less than ten times the distance between us and the moon. On its next pass, it will then travel further away to 23 million kilometers, before returning in 2060 for another close encounter of barely 1.2 million kilometers.

Nereus is an asteroid of the Apollo class that passes across the path of the Earth as it orbits the sun. According to the website Space Reference, experts initially saw this asteroid on September 30, 1981.

With a current human-made rocket, experts might reach the asteroid for exploration in 426 days. Scientists have even pondered the adventure, The Mirror.

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Japan proposed deploying its spacecraft Hayabusa to investigate Nereus in the past. Even NASA planned to send the Robotic Asteroid Shoemaker Rendezvous probe to the asteroid, nearly three football fields.

Planet Earth Not New to Asteroid Flyby

Large asteroids have already reached Earth's orbit, so the planet is no stranger to these massive chunks of fast-moving rock.

In September, an asteroid the size of Big Ben's clock tower was expected to approach our orbit at a speed of almost 80,000 kilometers per hour. 2021RL3 is up to 110 meters wide and approached the planet at a distance of 2.9 million kilometers.

That's just seven times the distance from Earth to the Moon, yet I'm sure none of you realized it. In March of this year, an asteroid the size of the Golden Gate Bridge came near to the planet. According to CBS News, it was the biggest and fastest space rock to pass by Earth in 2021.

News.com.au said an asteroid the size of the Golden Gate Bridge flew by Earth last month. The rock, dubbed 1996 VB3, had a diameter of 219 meters and passed near Earth on October 20. It was around two million kilometers away from our planet at its closest point.

"2001 FO32," often known as Apophis, the "God of Chaos," is the biggest asteroid to pass close to Earth this year. It passed by in March, having a diameter of 335 meters.