The asteroid, valued at about $ 5 billion, will pass over Earth next Saturday

According to NASA, the asteroid 4460 Nerius, which is considered dangerous, will pass very close to Earth in the last 20 years. No matter how scary it may seem, it will not cause us any problems. The company recently announced two new space missions for 2030.

The oval-shaped asteroid, about 330 meters, larger than the Eiffel Tower, will enter Earth’s orbit next Saturday (11). It travels at a speed of 23,700 km per hour and travels at a distance of 3.86 thousand kilometers from the Earth, which is equal to 10 times the distance between our planet and the Moon.

NASA considers any space objects within 193 million kilometers of Earth to be “near” and if they go beyond 7.5 million kilometers they will be labeled “dangerous”. As a result, astronomers begin to closely monitor these objects, looking for any signs that could change their path and have a direct impact on the planet.

Nerius was discovered in 1982 and travels close to our planet every 10 years. Even the Japanese space agency NASA and JAXA wanted to take a sample of the asteroid for research, but chose the 25143 Itokawa.

According to NASA studies, the Nereus will pass close to Earth again on March 2, 2031 and November 2050. Passing even closer On February 14, 2060, the asteroid will pass 1.2 million kilometers from our planet. 3 moons away.

This asteroid is also a target for those thinking about space mining. Astronaut, a database that tracks more than 600,000 asteroids, estimates that Nerius is rich in nickel, iron and cobalt deposits. US $ 4.71 billion (BRL 27 billion).

One day, if an asteroid is in direct orbit towards us, space agencies are already thinking of a solution. On November 23, NASA launched a spacecraft as part of a dual asteroid diversion mission aimed at changing the orbit of space bodies by impact.

China has a similar plan, but Long uses the March 5 series of rockets. Experiments with the asteroid Pennu have shown that Chinese technology is successful and can divert an asteroid, preventing a catastrophic impact on Earth. The asteroid released the news in August this year.