The moon is approximately 238,855 miles from Earth. On Monday, May 18, newly-discovered Asteroid 2026 JH2 is going to zoom past Earth at a distance of around 55,923 miles. When talking about space, that is really, really close.
“In astronomical terms, it’s as close as you can get without hitting,” Mark Norris at the University of Lancashire told New Scientist.
Scientists have estimated that asteroid 2026 JH2 is between 50 and 100 feet across. It will be traveling at around 20,000 miles per hour when it passes by Earth.
If Asteroid 2026 JH2 were to hit Earth, it would be devastating
According to Richard Moissl, head of the European Space Agency’s Planetary Defence Office, if Asteroid 2026 JH2 were to hit Earth, the result would resemble the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor, which released about 30 times more kinetic energy than the 1945 Hiroshima bomb.
Approximately 59 feet in diameter, the Chelyabinsk meteor blew out windows and damaged buildings in Chelyabinsk, Russia when it struck Earth, injuring almost 1,500 people.
“It’s the kind of thing that would ruin a city quite efficiently, if it hit,” said Norris.
Astronomers have observed Asteroid 2026 JH2, designated as an Apollo-class Near-Earth Object by NASA, only 24 times over the last several days. Scientists are currently tracking the asteroid to better estimate its trajectory.
“Comets and asteroids that have been nudged by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to enter the Earth’s neighborhood” are classified as Apollo-class Near-Earth Objects, according to NASA. Specifically, scientists categorize space rocks as Near-Earth Objects if they are within 30 million miles of Earth or about 120 million miles of the sun.
According to preliminary data, this asteroid pass poses no impact risk. There is, however, a very small chance that something called the Yarkovsky Effect could occur and alter the space rock’s orbit.