Asteroid 2026 JH2 sailed came within 50,000 miles of Earth – about a quarter of the distance to the Moon – and was only spotted by experts just a few days ago
An asteroid the size of a five-a-side football pitch sailed near Earth just days after it was spotted by astronomers.
Asteroid 2026 JH2 was discovered by a team at the Mount Lemon Survey in Arizona last week. It was quickly classified as a near-Earth asteroid and sailed through the Moon’s orbit of our planet on Monday evening.
The asteroid was said to have come within 50,000 miles of Earth, about one quarter of the distance to the Moon. Observers believe the asteroid was between 16 to 35 metres wide and was too small to be seen with the human eye alone, though it could be spotted with telescopes in various parts of the world.
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Encounters like asteroid 2026 JH2 are rare, and only five known space rocks are slated to pass inside the Moon’s orbit in the coming year. While rare, the asteroid posed no impact risk to Earth despite being classified as a potentially hazardous object due to its size.
Mark Norris, a senior astronomy lecturer at the University of Lancashire, told the BBC Sky at Night Magazine: “If it entered Earth’s atmosphere, an asteroid of this scale would still be capable of causing serious regional damage .For example, the Chelyabinsk meteor that exploded over Russia in 2013 was thought to be of a similar size, and despite breaking apart before reaching the ground, it damaged buildings across hundreds of square miles.”
Unfortunately, the asteroid was not easily visible for stargazers in the northern hemisphere as it dipped into southern skies at about sunset yesterday. Norris added those with telescopes in the southern hemisphere would have the best chance of seeing the space rock.
He told the outlet: “2026 JH2 will appear to move extremely quickly across the sky, roughly a third of a degree per minute, so without tracking it would streak straight through a telescope’s field of view in seconds.”
2026 JH2 will not pass Earth until 2060 and will pass at a much greater distance, according to the European Space Agency. The asteroid was about the size of the Chelyabinsk meteor that exploded over the Earth’s atmosphere.
The blast was so strong that it shattered windows in the Russian city and caused injuries for an estimated 1,500 people. Some pieces of the meteor fell down to the surface though none struck populated areas.
