Giraffe-sized asteroid 2026 VY2
0.3 LD · ~5 m
Drawn to scale.
Silhouette: Jody Taylor, PhyloPic (CC0)
2026 VY2 passes inside the Moon's orbit, about 113,318 km from Earth's centre (0.3× the distance to the Moon). It is 3–9 m across (estimated). If a rock this size hit Earth, it would burn up as a bright fireball high in the atmosphere; at most, small meteorites reach the ground. Astronomers spot one this size passing inside the Moon's orbit about 100 times a year, and many more pass unseen. It misses Earth on this pass. NASA's Sentry impact monitoring gives it about a 1 in 10,000 chance of hitting Earth on a later pass between 2055 and 2126; odds like these usually drop to zero as more observations come in.
For the background, read Impact risk in Asteroids.
Get a heads-up on the next close approach
Asteroid Alerts sends a push when something worth seeing happens — a big fireball, a close asteroid pass, a meteor shower peak or an aurora storm. Free.
One email a week
What’s passing, what’s visible, what hit.