The asteroid’s gradual pace mixed with the weather and minerals it is product of has folks dreaming of some extraterrestrial prospecting.
It is an asteroid that is as huge because the Eiffel Tower is tall. The supplies it is product of would worth it at almost $5 billion if somebody on Earth may declare it. And on Saturday morning, it would make its closest method to our planet till 2060.
The asteroid, 4660 Nereus, will come inside 2.4 million miles of Earth. Galactically, that is knocking on the entrance door. However in actuality, that is nonetheless 10 instances the gap between the Earth and our moon. EarthSky experiences it would attain its closest level at roughly 10:51 a.m. EST Saturday.
At its widest level, Nereus is 1,083 ft in diameter. The Eiffel Tower is 20 ft shorter.
Whereas the Minor Planet Heart formally deems Nereus a Doubtlessly Hazardous Object, based on EarthSky, it isn’t a risk to hit us. Any object that will get inside 19.5 instances our distance to the moon and is bigger than 460 ft will get that designation.
Though it is massive and might be comparatively shut, EarthSky mentioned Nereus may have a visible magnitude of 12. The bare eye can solely see as much as magnitude 6.
EarthSky experiences Nereus circles the solar as soon as each 661 days on an elongated orbital path.
As The Hill reported this month, the asteroid database Asterank estimates Nereus is price $4.71 billion as a result of its composition, believed to comprise nickel, iron and cobalt. And with non-public house ventures like SpaceX and Blue Origin, mixed with the truth that NASA has already despatched spacecraft to not solely gather asteroid samples for return to Earth but in addition to experiment with redirecting asteroids, Nereus gives potential mining alternatives down the street.
Asterank estimates the revenue from mining Nereus can be $1.39 billion. It additionally helps that Nereus strikes fairly slowly in comparison with different asteroids — 14,719 mph. These and different components put it among the many most price efficient asteroids to focus on, the web site mentioned.
Different asteroids Asterank watches are valued at greater than $100 trillion.