Last week, researchers discovered an asteroid roughly the size of the Washington Monument rapidly approaching Earth. And now it’s gone. It whipped past us on the night of May 18, close enough to slide between Earth and the moon. Unless you spend your evenings refreshing NASA databases or following live updates on your social media hellhole of choice, you probably had no idea it was even there.
If you missed it, you can watch it here:
An Asteroid the Size of the Washington Monument Just Flew Between Earth and the Moon
CNN reports that the asteroid, officially named 2026 JH2, was first spotted on May 10 by astronomers at the Mount Lemmon Survey. By Monday evening, it had already made its closest pass to Earth, flying within roughly 56,000 miles of us at nearly 20,000 mph.
The scientific community, which was caught a little flat-footed by its sudden appearance and immediate exit, stressed that we were never in any danger. The asteroid, which was estimated to be between 50 and 115 feet wide, was not on a collision course with Earth. But obviously the real story here isn’t that, cosmically speaking, it narrowly passed by us; it’s that it narrowly passed by us, and we had no idea it was coming until it had one foot out the door.
It’s all just a bit unsettling. Even more unsettling is that we identify only a small fraction of similarly sized near-Earth asteroids. Most are effectively invisible until a little sunlight hits them at the right angle. There’s also the fact that there is a ton of junk out there, and it’s hard to parse it all.
Asteroid tracking tech isn’t exactly in peak condition. While technology to track these rogue rocks exists, some of our most trusted satellite-spotting telescopes, like the Arecibo Telescope and NASA’s Goldstone radar system, are out of commission as they undergo repairs.
For now, rest easy knowing that we didn’t have to scramble for a last-second asteroid-deflecting/asteroid-obliterating mission. We know we can use a rocket to bonk an asteroid off course, should we need to. So there’s always that option. Let’s just hope we never have to break that glass in case of emergency.
The post Everything We Know About Asteroid JH2, the Washington Monument-Sized Space Rock That Just Flew Between Earth and the Moon appeared first on VICE.
