A newly discovered asteroid about the size of one to two school buses is set to make a close but harmless flyby of Earth this week, passing within roughly 91,000 kilometres of the planet — about a quarter of the distance to the Moon.
The object, named 2026JH2, was detected earlier this month by astronomers in Arizona and belongs to a group of space rocks whose orbits cross Earth’s path around the Sun. Scientists say there is no danger of impact, describing such encounters as relatively common, although the asteroid’s estimated size of 15 to 30 metres has drawn comparisons to past atmospheric explosions over Russia and Siberia.
Experts noted that limited radar capability following the collapse of the Arecibo Observatory and repairs at NASA’s Goldstone facility has reduced the ability to closely track near-Earth objects, while also highlighting that only a small fraction of similar asteroids have so far been identified.
