The asteroid will pass near Earth on Monday and will be close enough to be visible using an amateur telescope.
By Adam Kovac edited by Claire Cameron
Getty Images/Erik Simonsen
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A newly discovered asteroid, estimated to be about as large as the Lincoln Memorial, is expected to fly between the Moon and Earth today. Fortunately, scientists say there is no risk of collision with our planet.
The space rock was first spotted on May 10 by astronomers at Tucson’s Mount Lemmon Survey, the same observatory that discovered a spectacular comet visible to the naked eye last year. The asteroid, called 2026JH2, likely has a diameter between 46 to 98.5 feet– for comparison, this is between the size of the Parthenon (45 feet tall) and the Lincoln Memorial (99 feet tall).
At its closest approach at 5:23 p.m. EDT, the asteroid will be within 56,628 miles of Earth, or about 24 percent of the distance between our planet and the Moon, and will be moving at about 19,500 miles per hour relative to Earth. That distance means it will pass beneath large space observatories like NASA’s Chandra X-ray telescope and above most commercial satellites. This proximity also means that its trajectory will be visible to amateur telescopes. The virtual telescope project will also allow live broadcast the near miss starting at 3:45 p.m. EDT.
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Although it is currently close to Earth, the asteroid has a very different orbit from our planet, passing beyond Mars towards the orbital plane of Jupiter, according to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Each of the asteroid’s rotations around the Sun takes just under 1,374 days, but its next close approach to Earth won’t occur until 2060, according to the European Space Agency.
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