Overview
- Asteroid 2026 JH2 passed about 91,000 kilometers from Earth on Monday, roughly a quarter of the Earth–Moon distance, with agencies confirming no impact risk.
- The object was discovered on May 10 by the Mount Lemmon Survey, only days before the encounter, underscoring how small and faint near‑Earth asteroids are often found late.
- Scientists estimate it is 15 to 35 meters wide and moving about 9.14 kilometers per second, comparable in scale to the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteoroid though it never approached the atmosphere.
- The flyby was closer than some satellites and reached about magnitude 11.5, making it observable in small telescopes and featured in a live stream by the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy.
- Experts note radar follow-up is limited since Arecibo’s collapse and Goldstone’s repairs, and say new surveys like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and NASA’s NEO Surveyor should boost early warning.