page_title: 4660 Nereus
hierarchical_section_title: 4660 Nereus
caption_attribution_description: Radar Image of Near-Earth-Asteroid (4660) Nereus, taken by the Goldstone Radar.
context_page_description: 4660 Nereus, provisional designation 1982 DB, is a small asteroid. It was discovered by Eleanor F. Helin on 28 February 1982, approximately 1 month after a near pass by the Earth.
  Nereus is potentially a very important asteroid. It is an Apollo and Mars-crosser, with an orbit that frequently comes very close to Earth, and because of this it is exceptionally accessible to spacecraft. Indeed, because of its small size and close orbit, its delta-V for rendezvous of ~5 km/s is smaller than the Moon's, which is about 6.3 km/s.
  Nereus makes seven approaches to Earth of less than 5 million km between 1900 and 2100. The closest will be in February 2060, at 1.2 million km. The next close approach is in December 2021, when it will be 3.9 million km away. Its orbital period of 1.82 yr also puts it somewhat near a 2:1 orbital resonance with Earth, which means that an approximately 4-year mission could depart for and return from the asteroid on relatively near passes to the Earth.
  Nereus is classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid, due to both its absolute magnitude and its minimum orbit intersection distance.
context_section_description: 4660 Nereus /ˈnɪəriːəs/, provisional designation 1982 DB, is a small (about 0.33 kilometres (0.21 mi)) asteroid. It was discovered by Eleanor F. Helin on 28 February 1982, approximately 1 month after a near pass by the Earth.
  Nereus is potentially a very important asteroid. It is an Apollo and Mars-crosser, with an orbit that frequently comes very close to Earth, and because of this it is exceptionally accessible to spacecraft. Indeed, because of its small size and close orbit, its delta-V for rendezvous of ~5 km/s is smaller than the Moon's, which is about 6.3 km/s.
  Nereus makes seven approaches to Earth of less than 5 million km between 1900 and 2100. The closest will be in February 2060, at 1.2 million km. The next close approach is in December 2021, when it will be 3.9 million km away. Its orbital period of 1.82 yr also puts it somewhat near a 2:1 orbital resonance with Earth, which means that an approximately 4-year mission could depart for and return from the asteroid on relatively near passes to the Earth.
  Nereus is classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA), due to both its absolute magnitude (H ≤ 22) and its minimum orbit intersection distance (MOID ≤ 0.05 AU).
  The asteroid is classified as E-type, so it could be potentially associated with aubrite meteorites (enstatite achondrites).
caption: Asteroid 4660 Nereus (NASA/JPL 2002)
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