Orca-sized asteroid 2026 VE3
0.5 LD · ~7 m
Drawn to scale.
Silhouette: Olesja Bogomaz, PhyloPic (CC0)
2026 VE3 passes inside the Moon's orbit, about 205,024 km from Earth's centre (0.5× the distance to the Moon). It is 4–12 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 4,400 chance of hitting Earth on a later pass between 2053 and 2126; odds like these usually drop to zero as more observations come in.
For the background, read Impact risk in Asteroids.
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