Asteroid 2026 JH2 Is About to Fly Right Past Earth—Relatively Speaking

# Asteroid 2026 JH2 Is About to Fly Right Past Earth—Relatively Speaking Source: [https://www.wired.com/story/asteroid-2026-jh2-is-about-to-fly-right-past-the-earth-relatively-speaking/](https://www.wired.com/story/asteroid-2026-jh2-is-about-to-fly-right-past-the-earth-relatively-speaking/) On May 18, an asteroid about the size of Chicago’s Cloud Gate will fly four times closer to Earth than the moon\.  Photograph: buradaki/iStock/Getty Images Plus look up\! Asteroid2026 JH2 is now approaching Earth; the object, which is about 20 meters \(66 feet\) in diameter—comparable to Chicago's[Cloud Gate](https://www.instagram.com/therealchicagobean/)sculpture—will pass by on May 18\. Enthusiasts will be able to observe it using a telescope or during a[live broadcast organized](https://www.virtualtelescope.eu/2026/05/12/near-earth-asteroid-2026-jh2-extremely-close-encounter-online-observation-18-may-2026/)by Virtual Telescope\. The object will pass at a minimum distance from Earth of about 57,000 miles—much closer than the moon, which is about four times farther away\. Among the tracked near\-earth objects, or NEOs, that will pass near the planet over the next few months, it will come the[closest](https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/)\. There are tens of thousands of NEOs, which are generally of no particular concern; they are, of course, monitored, and some do have a \(small\) risk of impacting Earth in the next few years\. According to[New Scientist](https://www.newscientist.com/article/2526328-asteroid-set-to-fly-very-close-to-earth/), 2026 JH2 is not among them, despite the widespread use of hyperbolic terms like “grazing” to describe how near it will come\. ## An Apollo\-Type Neo Asteroid 2026 JH2[is](https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=2026%20JH2&view=OPC)technically[an Apollo\-type NEO](https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=2026%20JH2&view=OPC), according to a[classification](https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/about/neo_groups.html)system that takes into consideration the characteristics of the object's orbit\. An Apollo\-type object has a semi\-major axis larger than Earth's \(and therefore greater than one astronomical unit, the distance that separates us from the sun\), and a perihelion \(the shortest distance from the sun\) of less than 1\.017 astronomical units\. \(All asteroids and comets with a perihelion of less than 1\.3 astronomical units are considered NEOs\.\) Its passage, while noteworthy, is not rare; in fact, in the past year, many objects have come as close if not closer\. Noteworthy among these was, for example, the passage of the small asteroid[2025 TF](https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=2025%20TF&view=OPC)about 260 miles\) from Earth's surface\. *This story originally appeared on[WIRED Italia](https://www.wired.it/article/asteroide-2026-jh2-sta-per-passare-vicino-terra-volendo-potete-guardarlo-in-diretta/)and has been translated from Italian\.* - Orbs, saucers, and flashes on the moon—here’s what’s in the[UFO files](https://www.wired.com/story/pentagon-drops-new-ufo-files/) [](https://www.wired.com/author/abonfranceschi/)