Giant city-killer asteroid to narrowly miss Earth
A giant asteroid that could destroy an entire city will narrowly avoid hitting Earth on Monday (18.06.26).
The massive space rock, called 2026JH2 and said to be four times the size of a London bus, was spotted late Monday night this week by experts who predicted it would fly past the planet at a distance of around 6,000 miles (90,000 km).
“Astronomically speaking, it’s the closest you can get without impact,” Mark Norris of the University of Lancashire told New Scientist.
He added that the asteroid would easily destroy an entire city if it hit, saying: “This is the kind of thing that could pretty efficiently destroy a city if it hit.”
The asteroid was first detected on May 13 by scientists at the Mount Lemmon Survey in Arizona and the Farpoint Observatory in Kansas.
It will be visible only briefly to northern hemisphere observers on Monday, but its high speed means it will be difficult to spot.
The space rock is believed to be between 52 and 115 feet tall, but its size is an estimate using the amount of light bouncing off its surface to calculate its mass.
The publication reports that if a 2026JH2 asteroid hits Earth, its impact would be comparable to the Chelyabinsk meteor impact that occurred in Russia in 2013.
The Chelyabinsk meteor was said to be 59 ft tall and exploded 28 miles (45 km) above the ground, with only 0.05 percent of the rock actually making an impact.
Approximately 1,500 people were injured and more than 3,600 houses were damaged in the explosion.
News of 2026JH2’s near miss comes after NASA chiefs warned Earth was powerless to stop thousands of “city killer” asteroids currently hurtling through space near our planet.
Experts estimate that there are still around 15,000 medium-sized space rocks undetected and potentially very close to Earth.
The 2022 mission, known as Dart, theoretically proved that humanity could knock a dangerous asteroid off course using a spacecraft.
However, scientists say that there is no defense system ready to launch if a real threat arises tomorrow.
Dart mission chief Dr. of Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. Nancy Chabot said: “We are worried about these city-killer asteroids.
“Darts was a great display but if there is a threat we need to use it we can’t stand by.
“We don’t know where 50 percent of the 140-meter asteroids are, which is worrying.
“We don’t have a way right now to go and actively deflect someone.
“We could be prepared, but I don’t see that investment being made.”
Speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Arizona, NASA’s Planetary Defense Officer Dr. Kelly Fast admitted that unknown objects are the most worrying.
He said: “What keeps me up at night are the asteroids we know nothing about.
“The little things always affect us, so we don’t worry too much about it. We don’t worry that much about the big things in movies either, because we know where they are.
“Those in between, those around 140 meters and larger, can cause local rather than global damage, and we don’t know where they are.
“There are estimated to be around 25,000 of these and we are only 40 percent of the way through.
“It takes time to find them, even with the best telescopes.”
NASA plans to launch a new mission called Surveyor in 2027, aiming to detect at least 90 percent of asteroids larger than 140 meters within 10 years. Until then, experts say Earth will remain largely exposed.
