{"id":386444,"date":"2026-04-18T22:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T22:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/386444\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T22:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T22:39:09","slug":"near-earth-asteroid-2026-hj-very-close-encounter-an-image-18-april-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/386444\/","title":{"rendered":"Near-Earth Asteroid 2026 HJ very close encounter: an image &#8211; 18 April 2026."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We spotted the near-Earth Asteroid 2026 HJ going to have a very close, but safe encounter with the Earth on 19 April 2026, coming as close as 114.000 km from us, 30% of the average lunar distance.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026HJ_18apr2026_pw17_masi.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-207170\" class=\"wp-image-207170\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026HJ_18apr2026_pw17_masi.jpg\" alt=\"Near-Earth Asteroid 2026 HJ: 18 April 2026.\" width=\"800\" height=\"599\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-207170\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Near-Earth Asteroid 2026 HJ: 18 April 2026.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The image above comes from a single 300-second exposure, remotely taken with the \u201cElena\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.virtualtelescope.eu\/the-planevawe-17%E2%80%B3-f6-8-4322939-mm-corrected-dall-kirkham-astrograph-paramount-me-stl-6303e\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PlaneWave 17\u2033 + Paramount MEII + SBIG STL-6303E<\/a>) robotic unit available as part of the Virtual Telescope Project in Manciano, Italy. The telescope tracked the apparent motion of the asteroid, showing as a faint dot in the center of the image, marked by an arrow: this is why the stars look like long streaks.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">When we spotted it, asteroid 2026 HJ was at about 497.000 kilometers from us and safely approaching our planet.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This 2.4-5.4 meter large asteroid will reach its minimum distance (about 251.000 km, 65% of the average lunar distance) from us on 19 April 2026, at 19:13 UTC (source: Nasa\/JPL). Of course, there are no risks at all for our planet.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.virtualtelescope.eu\/solar-system\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Back to \u201cSolar System\u201d page<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Support The Virtual Telescope Project!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Support us! Please, donate and celebrate the ARTEMIS II mission with an EXCLUSIVE and STUNNING digital hi-res image of the largest Supermoon of 2025 to download and frame on your wall and many more pictures, specifically made for supporters like you!<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.virtualtelescope.eu\/donate\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-205552 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Donatebutton.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"26\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We spotted the near-Earth Asteroid 2026 HJ going to have a very close, but safe encounter with the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[200333,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-386444","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-2026-hj","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}