Giant asteroid bigger than Eiffel Tower set to break into Earth's orbit within days

A "potentially hazardous" Eiffel Tower-sized asteroid will break into the Earth's orbit next week.

According to NASA's register of all space debris, it could be making a "close approach" to our planet - but there doesn't appear to be too much to worry about.

The 330metre-long asteroid travels at 14,700 miles per hour and also dwarfs the Shard in London.

It is said to not pose a threat to Earth but NASA regards it possibly concerning as it fits into their parameters of being at least 150metres in size and within 4.6million miles of Earth’s orbit.

It will fly past our orbit on December 11, at a distance of some 2.4million miles away - around 10 times the distance between our planet and the moon.

The asteroid is the size of the Eiffel Tower - but it isn't expected to come too near (Getty Images)

Astronomer Eleanor Helin first spotted it on February 28, 1982 and it made its closest approach to Earth in 2002

Nereus is an asteroid of interest for robotic missions from NASA and JAXA, which is the Japanese space agency.

Since it's relatively close and passes by Earth frequently, it was a prime candidate for JAXA to send their Hayabusa spacecraft to Nereus before settling for another asteroid named 25143 Itokawa.

While Nereus may not pose a threat anytime soon, for the asteroids that do seem hazardous, NASA has developed the DART mission.

NASA still class it as a "close approach" to our planet (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

DART, or to give it its full name the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, is the first test of a new technology to prevent future asteroid collisions of the type that ended the age of the dinosaurs.

It is designed to “punch” an asteroid off course. It’s the first demonstration of a “kinetic impactor technique” – essentially a high-powered gun – which is designed to change the motion of an asteroid in space.

DART will attempt to intercept 65803 Didymos, a near-Earth asteroid which is orbited by a tiny “moonlet” called Dimorphos. The 55-foot wide mini-moon will be struck by DART, which weighs almost 80 stone, at a speed of almost 15,000mph.

If successful, scientists will be able to detect a change in the space rock’s orbit. But we won’t know for a while.

It will take 10 months to travel the 6.8m miles to Dimorphos and the collision will not take place until late September or early October 2022.