Uploaded November 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
HOUSTON — A 330-meter-wide ‘Don’t Look Up Style’ asteroid, around the size of the Eiffel Tower, is heading towards Earth, and is expected to pass us by on December 11, 2021.
The asteroid, known as 4660 Nereus, is calculated to be passing about 2.4 million miles away from Earth, however The Scotsman explains that because its diameter is wider than 140 meters and it will approach Earth at less than half the distance from the Earth to the sun, it is classified as “potentially hazardous,” which means only a relatively slight deviation in its massive orbit could place it on a collision course with Earth and that that could cause “major regional damage.”
An unlikely chance of a collision, however, is actually more likely in 2060, when 4660 Nereus will pass within just 745,000 miles of Earth on Valentine’s Day.
SOURCES: The Washington Post, NASA, The Scotsman, Deseret.com, SCMP, Space Debris Observation and Data Application Centre at the China National Space Administration, Acta Astronomica Sinica journal
scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3150321/could-million-small-asteroids-be-collision-course-earth
http://english.nao.cas.cn/
global.cnki.net/kcms/detail/32.1113.P.20210920.1843.002.html
cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/ca
echo.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroids/4660_Nereus/brozovic.etal.2009.nereus.pdf
scotsman.com/read-this/will-an-asteroid-hit-earth-in-december-and-should-you-be-worried-3449452
deseret.com/2021/11/6/22765146/asteroid-eiffel-tower-size-hit-earth
nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-invites-media-to-launch-of-double-asteroid-redirection-test
washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/10/06/nasa-asteroid-dart-dimorphos
HOUSTON — A 330-meter-wide ‘Don’t Look Up Style’ asteroid, around the size of the Eiffel Tower, is heading towards Earth, and is expected to pass us by on December 11, 2021.
The asteroid, known as 4660 Nereus, is calculated to be passing about 2.4 million miles away from Earth, however The Scotsman explains that because its diameter is wider than 140 meters and it will approach Earth at less than half the distance from the Earth to the sun, it is classified as “potentially hazardous,” which means only a relatively slight deviation in its massive orbit could place it on a collision course with Earth and that that could cause “major regional damage.”
An unlikely chance of a collision, however, is actually more likely in 2060, when 4660 Nereus will pass within just 745,000 miles of Earth on Valentine’s Day.
SOURCES: The Washington Post, NASA, The Scotsman, Deseret.com, SCMP, Space Debris Observation and Data Application Centre at the China National Space Administration, Acta Astronomica Sinica journal
scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3150321/could-million-small-asteroids-be-collision-course-earth
http://english.nao.cas.cn/
global.cnki.net/kcms/detail/32.1113.P.20210920.1843.002.html
cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/ca
echo.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroids/4660_Nereus/brozovic.etal.2009.nereus.pdf
scotsman.com/read-this/will-an-asteroid-hit-earth-in-december-and-should-you-be-worried-3449452
deseret.com/2021/11/6/22765146/asteroid-eiffel-tower-size-hit-earth
nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-invites-media-to-launch-of-double-asteroid-redirection-test
washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/10/06/nasa-asteroid-dart-dimorphos
