Mumbai, December 2: A giant piece of rock orbiting around the Sun known as Asteroid 4660 Nereus is heading towards the Earth. The gigantic asteroid is said to be skim past the Earth on December 11. The Asteroid 4660 Nereus was discovered in 1982 and NASA has been monitoring it since then.

As per NASA, the enormous asteroid is roughly 330-meter wide elongated rock and it is expected to come within 2.5 Million Miles of Earth Next Week, approximately 10 times the distance between Earth and the Moon. This is the closest it has been in the last 20 years. Potentially Hazardous Asteroid 2020 QL2, Bigger Than a Football Field, to Fly Past Earth on September 14, Will This Huge Space Rock Be Dangerous?.

As per the Asterank, a scientific and economic database of asteroids, 4660 Nereus is supposed to contain iron, nickel, and cobalt which could be worth millions of dollars.

NASA has characterised Asteroid 4660 Nereus as a Near-Earth Object (NEO) and a potential hazard due to its size and nearness to the Earth. NEOs are described as any small Solar System body, mainly Comets and Asteroids, that passes close to the Earth's proximity.  NASA To Launch DART Spacecraft To Deliberately Crash Into an Asteroid Today.

However, the asteroid will skim off the Earth from a safe distance. Researchers have categorised the 4660 Nereus into the Earth-friendly scale, which means the asteroid will not be close enough to cause the damage. Interestingly enough, NASA had launched its mission to change the course of an asteroid called Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) on November 24.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 02, 2021 03:29 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).