asteroids It is a very large. It has an oval shape and reaches a length of 330 meters. It is enough to inflict serious damage to the ground if it is hit.
4660 Nereus Exactly closer to our planet December 11. Then it passes us from a distance 3.9 million km. This distance from the Moon to the Earth is 10 times the distance, so it is enough to be able to organize an expedition into space to explore an asteroid. These plans were implemented by scholars from NASA and a Japanese mission hayabusa.
The asteroid will approach Earth more than ten times in the coming decades. Sure, no missions will be sent to the maximum for this year, but it’s very possible that the next ones will.
Scientists say that 4660 Nereus It has very good potential for scientific research, and a possible landing on the surface should not be too difficult from a technical point of view.
Regardless of the scientific potential of an asteroid, many experts are concerned about the potential dangers of near-Earth asteroids, as the impacts can be devastating, and we currently lack any means to defend ourselves against them.
One way to stop an asteroid’s impact is to change its trajectory, which is to shoot something that changes its direction slightly, at least a fraction of a percent.
Special mission “Protection of the Earth” called Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) The live broadcast is scheduled to start in November as a result of the efforts made NASA I Applied Physics Lab.
Read also: NASA needs a better telescope to find a second Earth
