A house-size asteroid will make a close pass of Earth and the moon tonight (April 9), passing a little over half the distance to the moon as it buzzes the southern hemisphere at a blistering speed of 28,030 miles per hour (45,109 kilometers per hour).<\/p>\n
The asteroid<\/a>, designated 2026 GD<\/a>, was discovered on Monday (April 6) and is estimated to be 16 meters (54 feet) in diameter. The solar system<\/a> wanderer will make its closest approach to Earth<\/a> at 6:59 p.m. (2259 GMT) on April 9, when it will pass 155,760 miles (250,000 km), or 0.65 lunar distances, while moving at 28,030 miles per hour (45,109 kilometers per hour).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 2026 GD will make an even closer approach to the moon<\/a> a few hours later, at 8:12 p.m. EDT on April 9 (0012 GMT on April 10), passing just 101,000 miles (163,750 km) from the lunar surface while posing no threat to either Earth or its natural satellite.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n The asteroid will also pose no threat to the crew of the Artemis 2<\/a> lunar mission, which is currently travelling between the moon and Earth ahead of its scheduled parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of California on Friday (April 10).<\/p>\n Following the flyby, 2026 GD will continue along a 644-day elliptical path that takes it beyond the orbit of Mars<\/a> before careening back towards the sun. Its next planetary encounter won’t come until July 2031, when it will travel the equivalent of 25 lunar distances from Venus<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2026 GD’s size and close orbit take it close enough to Earth to warrant a place on the European Space Agency<\/a>‘s “Risk List” \u2014 a catalogue of near-Earth objects that pose a non-zero impact probability. Even so, it poses a cumulative impact probability of just 1\/124,378 for orbits that will take it close to Earth between the years 2082 and 2124, according to ESA<\/a>.<\/p>\n