Asteroid 2026JH2 to Pass Earth at 90,000 km on 18 May

An asteroid designated 2026JH2 will pass within 90,917 kilometres of Earth next week, a distance described by one university researcher as close in astronomical terms without colliding. The asteroid will reach its closest approach at 9:38pm UTC on 18 May.

It is moving at 9.17 kilometres per second relative to Earth, which will make it difficult to observe even with telescopes as it crosses the sky at a speed comparable to artificial satellites. Visibility will be limited to the northern hemisphere and only for a brief period.

The object measures an estimated 16 to 36 metres in diameter according to data from the Sormano Astronomical Observatory. A researcher at the University of Kent said small asteroids of this size are difficult to detect because they do not reflect enough light.

If an asteroid of this size were to strike Earth it would produce an airburst event comparable to the Chelyabinsk meteor in 2013. That event released around 30 times more kinetic energy than the Hiroshima bomb in 1945.

Within the next year only five known asteroids are expected to pass inside the orbit of the Moon, and only one other will come closer than 2026JH2. The object was identified this week by observers at the Mount Lemmon Survey in Arizona and the Farpoint Observatory in Kansas.

Astronomers have catalogued nearly all asteroids in the solar system larger than one kilometre across and continue to expand the database to include smaller bodies as observation capabilities improve. Asteroids the size of 2026JH2 remain largely uncharted.

Simulations indicate that 2026JH2 has no chance of impacting Earth for at least the next 100 years. The asteroid has sufficient mass to destroy a city if it were to hit.