near-Earth asteroid (NEA)
Fr.: astéroïde géocroiseur
An → asteroid whose orbit lies partly between 0.983 and 1.3 → astronomical units from the Sun, so that it passes close to the Earth. Currently thousands of near-Earth asteroids are known, ranging in size up to about 30 km. Among them, there are between 500 and 1,000 such asteroids larger than one km in diameter. They are divided into three subclasses: → Amor asteroids, → Apollo asteroids, and → Aten asteroids. See also → near-Earth object.