Overview
- 2026 JH2, a small near-Earth asteroid, passed at roughly 91,600 kilometers from Earth on Monday with no risk of impact, according to NASA and the European Space Agency.
- Discovered on May 10 by the Mount Lemmon Survey in Arizona, the object is classified as an Apollo near‑Earth asteroid that crosses Earth's orbit around the Sun.
- Its diameter is estimated at about 15 to 30 meters because current data come from visible light only, which requires assumptions about reflectivity and leaves size uncertain.
- The flyby was too faint for the naked eye at about magnitude 11.5, though telescope projects, including the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy, streamed the event live.
- Experts note lost or reduced radar capacity after Arecibo’s collapse and repairs at NASA’s Goldstone site, which hinders precise tracking of small objects and leaves most in this size range still undiscovered.