A Newly Found Asteroid Buzzed Earth in May

A Close Pass From a Recently Spotted Rock

A newly discovered asteroid passed closer to Earth than the moon in May, according to NBC News. The object, officially named 2026 JH2 and estimated at about 62 feet wide, came within roughly 57,000 miles of the planet on May 18 - well inside the moon’s average distance of about 238,855 miles. It was not expected to pose any threat to Earth.

Found Only Days Before It Arrived

Astronomers did not know the asteroid existed until about a week before its flyby. It was discovered May 10 by the Mount Lemmon Survey, an astronomical project based in Arizona’s Santa Catalina Mountains, NBC News reported. The short notice is itself part of the story: an object this size making such a close approach is rare, though not unprecedented, and it was identified only shortly before its closest pass.

How the Distance Was Tracked

The European Space Agency and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which maintains a database of known objects in the solar system, tracked the asteroid’s path, according to NBC News. JPL projected the closest approach around 6 p.m. ET, when the rock was expected to reach peak brightness and become briefly visible to amateur astronomers with small telescopes. A live stream run by an Italian observatory broadcast the flyby online.

A Sense of Scale

For comparison, NBC News noted that the famous Chelyabinsk meteor - which exploded over Russia in 2013, shattering windows across a city - measured around 59 feet, slightly smaller than 2026 JH2, though the new asteroid’s exact size is not yet confirmed. Many smaller objects pass Earth unnoticed each year. What set this one apart was the combination of its size and how close it came.

The Grounded Takeaway

The flyby posed no danger, but it illustrates the ongoing work of tracking near-Earth objects. NASA’s Near-Earth Object Observations program routinely watches for asteroids that could approach the planet, and attention is already turning to a much larger rock, Apophis, projected to pass within about 20,000 miles of Earth in April 2029. For now, 2026 JH2 is a reminder that the sky is busier - and more closely watched - than it often appears.

References: NBC News - Newly discovered asteroid to pass closer to Earth than the moon Monday