- 4660 Nereus
4660 Nereus (pronEng|ˈnɪəriəs "nirr'-ee-əs"; Greek "Νηρέας)" is a small (1 km in diameter) asteroid, discovered by
Eleanor F. Helin onFebruary 28 ,1982 . It is named afterNereus , a Titan inGreek mythology .Nereus is potentially a very important
asteroid . It is an Apollo andMars-crosser asteroid , with anorbit that frequently comes very close to Earth, and because of this it is exceptionally accessible to spacecraft. Indeed, because of its small size, itsdelta-V for rendezvous is smaller than theMoon 's.Nereus makes seven approaches to Earth of less than 5 Gm from 1900-2100. The closest will be in February 2060, at 1.2 Gm. The next close approach is in December 2021, when it will be 3.9 Gm away.
Nereus was scheduled for visitation by both the private
Near Earth Asteroid Prospector probe, and the JapaneseHayabusa probe. However, the former project is defunct, andHayabusa 's delay in launching caused it to be redirected to25143 Itokawa . Nonetheless, Nereus may well become a target of future space exploration.Nereus has been imaged by
radar , which reveals a slightly elongated shape.
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