A newly discovered asteroid estimated to be about as long as the Lincoln Memorial is tall is set to fly between the moon and Earth today. Thankfully, scientists say there is no risk of a 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 with the naked eye last year. The asteroid, called 2026 JH2, likely has a diameter of between 46 to 98.5 feet—for comparison, that’s between the height of the Parthenon (45 feet tall) and the Lincoln Memorial (99 feet tall).
At its closest approach around 5:23 P.M. EDT, the asteroid will be within about 56,700 miles from Earth—about 24 percent of the distance from our planet to the moon—and traveling at approximately 20,470 miles per hour relative to Earth. That distance means it will pass below the orbit of large space-based observatories like NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Telescope and above most commercial satellites. That proximity also means its trajectory will be visible to amateur telescopes. The Virtual Telescope Project will also live stream the near-miss starting at 3:45 P.M. EDT.
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The asteroid is in Earth’s neighborhood for the moment, but its orbit will take it swinging out past Mars toward Jupiter’s orbital plane, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Each of the asteroid’s trips around the Sun takes about 1,374 days, but its next close-approach to Earth won't come until 2090, according to the European Space Agency.