A recently spotted asteroid is set to pass close to Earth on May 18, but astronomers say there is no danger of impact.
The space rock, designated 2026 JH2, will travel within roughly 56,000 miles of the planet, a distance well inside the moon’s orbit but about double the altitude of GPS satellites, according to information provided by the Catalina Sky Survey. The moon sits about 228,855 miles from Earth, per NASA.
“This is much closer than the moon, but about twice as far as GPS satellites,” said Carson Fuls, director of the Catalina Sky Survey, per Fox 4 KDFW.
The closest approach is expected at 5:23 p.m. ET on May 18. Because that occurs during daytime hours across the United States, viewing the object from North America will be difficult. Observers in Europe will be better positioned to catch a glimpse.
“Since it is coming so close, it will appear to move very quickly across the sky towards the direction of the sunrise. After its close approach, it will move into the daylight sky and not be visible from the ground,” Fuls said, per Fox 4.
Even for those in a favorable location, the asteroid will not be visible to the naked eye. Fuls said it will reach a magnitude of about 11.8, which will require a telescope to observe.
“The asteroid will be fairly bright (for an asteroid) and reach magnitude 11.8. However, this is still over 100x fainter than a human eye can see even with perfectly dark conditions, so a backyard telescope would be required to see it,” Fuls said.
The Virtual Telescope Project plans to carry a livestream of the flyby beginning at 3:14 p.m. ET on May 18.
Astronomers first observed 2026 JH2 between May 9 and May 10. The Catalina Sky Survey detected the object on May 9 using its Mt. Lemmon Survey telescope, with Joshua Hogan and Alessandra Serreno operating the instrument that night, Fuls said.
The asteroid is estimated to measure between 100 and 250 feet in diameter.
After this week’s pass, 2026 JH2 is not expected to return to Earth’s vicinity until 2030, when it will be much farther from the planet.
