A newly discovered bus-sized asteroid is set to buzz Earth late on March 12, passing closer than the moon as it zips silently beneath Antarctica, posing no risk to our planet or its natural satellite.
The solar system asteroid will make its closest approach to Earth at 11:27 p.m. EDT on March 12 (0327 GMT on March 13), when it will pass 197,466 miles (317,791 kilometers) from the southern hemisphere.
At the point of closest approach NASA estimates that the 32-72 foot-wide (10-22 meters) asteroid — designated 2026 EG1 — will be travelling at a blistering 21,513 miles per hour (34,621 kilometers per hour) relative to Earth and will swiftly pass us by, after performing a distant flyby of the moon.
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Initial observations following its discovery on March 8 reveal that 2026 EG1 follows a 655-day elliptical orbit around the sun, during which it ranges from an innermost point within Earth’s orbit to well beyond the path of Mars.
2026 EG1’s next closest planetary approach won’t take place until Sept. 13, 2186, when it will pass approximately 7.5 million miles (12.1 million km) from the surface of Mars. The wandering asteroid is just one of over 41,000 near-Earth asteroids currently being tracked by NASA and its partners — a figure that will likely rise significantly thanks to the efforts of the Vera Rubin Observatory, which has already discovered 2,000 hitherto unknown solar system bodies with its initial dataset.
Despite this staggering number, NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies has predicted that no major asteroid strikes capable of causing serious damage will occur on our planet in the next 100 years
Regardless, NASA and its partners are working on ways to protect Earth in the event of a potential asteroid strike by holding mock scenarios to improve worldwide messaging and response, while also executing ground-breaking asteroid redirect missions.