ASTEROID FLYBY1.0× MOON

Asteroid 2026 TF59 flew past Earth

Closest approach
Map: Asteroid 2026 TF59 flew past Earth

Asteroid 2026 TF59 passed Earth on Monday, October 12, 2026 at about 17:36 UTC, at 369,091 km (229,353 miles): 0.96 times the distance to the Moon, closer than the Moon itself. It was moving at 7.0 km/s (15,668 mph) relative to Earth and is about 5 to 11 meters (16 to 35 feet) across, judging by its brightness. NASA’s orbit puts it safely past: it posed no risk of hitting Earth on this pass.

Closest approachOct 12 17:36 UTC
Distance369,091 km · 229,353 mi
Lunar distances0.96
Speed7.0 km/s · 15,668 mph
Size (est.)5–11 m
Brightness (H)28.7
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Its orbit

It is an Aten asteroid: its orbit is smaller than Earth’s but crosses it. It circles the Sun once every 334 days. Astronomers first spotted it on October 11, 2026, just 1 day before its closest approach.

How often does this happen?

Small asteroids pass between Earth and the Moon every few weeks; most are only a few meters to tens of meters across and are found days before, or even after, they fly by. For scale, the rock that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013 was about 18 meters across.

Did you know?

Asteroid hunters. Survey telescopes like ATLAS and Catalina scan the sky every clear night and discover new near-Earth asteroids almost every day.

Data: NASA JPL Small-Body Database and CNEOS close approaches. Size assumes a reflectivity between 5 and 25 percent.

More: every space weather and near-Earth page · all events

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