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New asteroids discoved by observatory
In about 10 hours of observations, NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory discovered 2,104 never-before-seen asteroids in our solar system, including seven near-Earth asteroids.
A newly discovered asteroid is going to pass by Earth in the coming days, but don’t worry, there’s no risk of impact.
The asteroid, named 2026 JH2, will pass by Earth at a distance of about 56,000 miles. That’s fairly close.
The moon, by comparison, is approximately 228,855 miles away, according to NASA.
"This is much closer than the moon, but about twice as far as GPS satellites," Carson Fuls, director of the Catalina Sky Survey, told FOX.
What to know about 2026 JH2
Dig deeper:
The asteroid will be making its closest pass by Earth when it’s daytime in the U.S., so, unfortunately, it will be very difficult to see it.
Our European friends on the other side of the pond, however, will actually be in the best spot and time to observe 2026 JH2, Fuls said.
"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 explained.
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"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 added.
2026 JH2 will make its closest pass by Earth on May 18 at 21:23 UT, which is 5:23 p.m. ET.
File photo by OBSERVATORIO VERA C. RUBIN/ HANDOUT/Anadolu via Getty Images)
What you can do:
If you’re determined to see the asteroid pass by Earth, you can watch Virtual Telescope Project’s livestream of the celestial body which will launch on May 18 at 3:14 p.m. ET.
The backstory:
Asteroid 2026 JH2 was first observed by several observatories between May 9 - May 10.
Astronomers with the Catalina Sky Survey saw the asteroid while operating its Mt. Lemmon Survey telescope on May 9, according to Fuls.
"This particular night, Joshua Hogan and Alessandra Serreno were on-site operating the telescope and making discoveries," Fuls said.
The asteroid is estimated to be between 100 and 250 feet in diameter.
What's next:
Unfortunately, the asteroid won’t be visiting Earth again until 2030, and at that time, it will be much farther away.
The Source: Information for this article was taken from The Virtual Telescope Project website, emailed correspondence with the Catalina Sky Survey and the American Astronomical Society. This story was reported from San Jose.