Newly discovered asteroid to fly by Earth today

According to data from the European Space Agency, the recently discovered asteroid 2026JH2 will pass near Earth today, May 18, at a safe distance. This was reported by Zamin.uz.

The news was confirmed by influential publications, which noted that this event is being closely monitored by astronomers. Staff at the Mount Lemmon Research Center in Tucson, Arizona, first detected the object on May 10.

It was subsequently assigned a sequential designation. The asteroid belongs to the Apollo group and moves along an orbit that intersects Earth’s path around the Sun.

According to expert calculations, at its closest approach, the object will be approximately 91,593 kilometers from Earth. For comparison, this distance is about 24% of the average distance between Earth and the Moon.

It is also significantly farther than the altitude of geosynchronous artificial satellites. As noted by experienced specialist Richard Binzel, although the asteroid will pass relatively close to Earth, it poses no threat to humanity.

He emphasized that such small near-Earth objects passing by are a routine astronomical phenomenon, and such events are regularly recorded. These bodies typically originate from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, drift from their original positions, and continue along their trajectories in space agencies continue to track their paths.

So far, precise measurements of the asteroid’s size are not available, as modern optical telescopes primarily determine an object’s brightness rather than its exact dimensions.

Preliminary estimates suggest its diameter could range from 15 to 30 meters. Scientists regard this close approach not as an extraordinary event, but as an opportunity for scientific observation.

At the same time, experts caution that predicting the long-term trajectories of small asteroids is difficult, as their paths can be altered over time by various gravitational influences.