Overview
- Asteroid 2026 JH2, discovered only days ago, is forecast to pass about 56,000 miles (90,000 km) from Earth on Monday, well inside the Moon’s orbit but with no impact risk.
- The object is expected to skim past the Moon around 6:51 pm UTC Monday and reach Earth’s closest approach near 9:23 pm UTC, with several hours of timing uncertainty due to limited data.
- Observations so far indicate a diameter of roughly 15–35 meters, a size range comparable to the 2013 Chelyabinsk impactor that could cause severe local damage if a strike ever occurred.
- Astronomers at the Mount Lemmon Survey and Farpoint Observatory first spotted the Apollo-class near‑Earth object, and the Minor Planet Center logged it after only a few dozen trackings.
- The Virtual Telescope Project plans a livestream beginning 7:45 pm UTC, and the asteroid could brighten to around magnitude 11–12, offering a viewing target for modest amateur telescopes and fresh data to tighten its orbit.