NASA tracks stadium-size asteroid passing near Earth: Here's how to watch it live
An asteroid about the length of three football fields is due to pass closely – but safely – by Earth in a matter of hours.
Talk of asteroids coming too close for comfort to Earth may remind people of asteroid 2024 YR4, which became infamous earlier in 2025 when astronomers calculated a slight chance of it impacting with Earth. But while YR4 was eventually ruled out as a threat during its flyby in 2032, the asteroid passing Earth on Friday, May 9, never posed any danger to begin with.
The gigantic space rock, which NASA compares to the size of a stadium, has a diameter of about 950 feet It may not be on a menacing trajectory, but it will still come close enough to Earth to warrant astronomers keeping a close eye on it as it whizzes by within about 2.6 million miles of our world.
Here's everything to know about the asteroid, how the public can track it going by and why NASA keeps a close eye on inbound space rocks.
The asteroid, dubbed 2002 JX8, makes close approaches to both Earth and Venus relatively often, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, managed by Caltech in California.
It's last trip near Earth came about two years ago, May 27, 2023, and after the 2025 flyby, it'll be about another two years until we see 2002 JX8 again on April 15, 2027.
The asteroid is much too small and far away to see without a telescope.
But those who want to catch a glimpse of the asteroid, even if it's virtual, still have a chance. The Virtual Telescope Project plans to stream the event live on YouTube. The video won't show the asteroid itself, but it will allow viewers to distinguish 2002 JX8 as a tiny dot moving past stars that appear as even tinier dots in the background.
The organization will go live at 4:30 p.m. ET.
Here's where to watch it:
The asteroid 2002 JX8 is large enough for NASA to deem it as "potentially hazardous" space object.
The JPL lab tracks any asteroids or comets with orbits that will bring them within 4.6 million miles of Earth, or 19.5 times the distance to the moon. Its Asteroid Watch dashboard displays the date of the next five closest approaches, as well as each object's approximate diameter and its distance from Earth.
After asteroid 2002 JX8, the next four asteroids slated to pass by Earth are relatively small – no bigger than a house.
Any object larger than about 150 meters (about 492 feet) that can approach the Earth to within this distance becomes potentially hazardous, according to the lab.
Most asteroids orbit within the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. But some follow paths that circulate into the inner solar system, including so-called near-Earth asteroids, according to NASA.
YR4 and its much larger cousin, the equally infamous Apophis were the most alarming space rocks astronomers have discovered and studied for decades.
Now that they have been ruled out as threats to Earth, astronomers still studying such imposing space rocks could help the world's space agencies prepare to mount a planetary defense if the need ever arose.
NASA and the European Space Agency both plan to send uncrewed spacecraft to observe Apophis in the years ahead to map and study its surface to gain further insights into near-Earth asteroids.
Protecting Earth from incoming space rocks could look a little like the test NASA pulled off in 2022 when it demonstrated that it was possible to nudge an incoming asteroid out of harm's way by slamming a spacecraft into one as part of its Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART. As of October, a craft from the European Space Agency is on the way to get an up-close look at the asteroid's remnants.
NASA is additionally working on an asteroid-hunting telescope known as the NEO Surveyor to find near-Earth objects capable of causing significant damage. Now set to launch no earlier than 2027, the telescope is designed to discover 90% of asteroids and comets that are 460 feet in size or larger and come within 30 million miles of Earth's orbit.
Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: NASA tracks stadium-size asteroid passing near Earth: How to watch
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The man who orchestrated a British medical scandal
Joanne Briggs's debut, The Scientist Who Wasn't There, is an astonishingly original memoir about truth, identity and the ethics of science. It's thrilling, unsettling – and really rather odd. Winner of the inaugural Bridport Prize for Memoir in 2023, the award that cinched the book's publication, it explores the enigmatic – if not completely bizarre – life of Briggs's father, Professor Michael Briggs, a man whose illustrious, globe-trotting scientific career concealed a vast labyrinth of deception. Born in Manchester, Professor Briggs became a research scientist who worked at NASA, an advisor to the World Health Organisation, and a successful executive in the pharmaceutical industry. On paper, his was a classic rags-to-riches story: he was a self-made, charismatic visionary who surfed the post-war technology boom. But in 1986, his career imploded when a Sunday Times exposé linked him to the hormone pregnancy test Primodos, which worked by triggering menstruation in non-pregnant women, and was alleged to have caused serious birth defects. It seemed Professor Briggs had been faking results. Things get stranger. Professor Briggs not only appears to have forged his qualifications, laundered research funds and bullied sceptical colleagues and anyone who doubted him – he may also have been a spy. He appears to have worked for the British government, possibly connected to Cold War intelligence gathering; may have been involved in espionage in East Berlin, and then somehow got caught up in the making of Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey. His death abroad, aged 51, was so sudden that Briggs speculates that there may have been some kind of cover-up. What begins, then, as a daughter's ostensibly simple search for the truth about her absent father, soon becomes a forensic and yet also fantastical investigation – part legal inquiry, part philosophical meditation. A trained lawyer, Briggs approaches the evidence as a prosecutor would: poring over professional records, interviewing colleagues and meeting with the victims of her father's lies and misconduct. Primodos involved high doses of synthetic hormones and though the causal link has never been confirmed, women who used it reported children with defects such as spina bifida, limb abnormalities, and heart issues. Briggs reveals that her father manipulated or suppressed data about these effects while being professionally involved with the pharmaceutical company producing it. But the book is also wildly surreal: Briggs imagines conversations with her father in which they debate the boundaries between science and science fiction, and the book eventually resolves into musings and reverie. The overall effect, frankly, is dizzying – pleasantly so. Briggs often hints that she herself doesn't know the difference between fact and fantasy; in a rather cryptic, ambivalent author's note, she writes: 'My memory of the past is as much made up of dreams, impressions, false beliefs, fantasies, feelings and notions as it is of facts [...] which I hope makes my memoir authentic. But is that a true story? Well, yes, it is to me.' True or not, the book defies neat categorisation. It's certainly a book about a very peculiar, unsavoury man, but it's also a vivid depiction of a world in which ambition and imagination collide, with devastating human consequences. Briggs does, at various points, express deep moral ambivalence about writing the book: she wrestles with the ethics of exposing her father's legacy, particularly given the trauma already borne by his victims. She describes a childhood overshadowed by confusion, secrecy and emotional neglect, but also moments of awe and admiration for her father. Their relationship, as reconstructed here, was fraught and complex – marked more by absence than presence, but never entirely devoid of connection or longing. The Scientist Who Wasn't There is not only an indictment of one man's lies and deceit and his descent into moral oblivion, therefore, but a study of duplicity; personal, institutional, even national and international. Briggs slowly assembles a counterbalanced, complex kind of truth, one that acknowledges the impossibility of total objectivity but which nonetheless insists on the value of the attempt. 'He only ever travelled in one direction,' Briggs writes of her father. 'Forwards, away from the smoke of burning bridges.' She, in contrast, with admirable insight and considerable nerve, turns back – to sift through the still smouldering ruins. The Scientist Who Wasn't There is published by Ithaka at £20. To order your copy for £16.99, call 0330 173 0523 or visit Telegraph Books Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
USA Today
44 minutes ago
- USA Today
Starliner launched 1 year ago on ill-fated voyage: Look back at mission's biggest moments
Starliner launched 1 year ago on ill-fated voyage: Look back at mission's biggest moments For 286 days, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams made their home among the stars as unexpected extended crew members of the International Space Station. Show Caption Hide Caption Starliner astronauts reflect on extended mission in space Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore discussed their extended stay aboard the International Space Station. As the two astronauts selected for the Starliner's first crewed flight test, Wilmore and Williams launched June 5, 2024, on a mission to test Boeing's vehicle on behalf of NASA. The Starliner instead encountered a slew of technical issues upon reaching the ISS and undocked without its two-member crew. Wilmore and Williams then returned in March 2025 with a SpaceX mission known as Crew-9, making a water landing in Florida. One year ago, two experienced NASA astronauts boarded an experimental Boeing spacecraft known as the Starliner for a short voyage to orbit and back. If you followed the Starliner saga as a few days stretched into months, you likely remember how this story ends. Boeing's vehicle, which it is developing for NASA to make trips to and from the International Space Station, attained a certain degree of notoriety. And the astronauts who crewed the spacecraft for its maiden human flight test are now as close to being household names as astronauts can get. For 286 days, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams made their home among the stars as unexpected extended crew members of the space station. Meanwhile, back on Earth, their predicament involved intricate planning and ‒ when President Donald Trump and the world's richest man Elon Musk chimed in ‒ no small amount of finger-pointing. The astronauts, who have long since returned to Earth, have regularly spoke about relishing the extra time in the cosmos, including in an exclusive interview in January with USA TODAY. Wilmore and Williams have also downplayed their extended mission as just part of the job. On the one-year anniversary of the Starliner's doomed launch, here's a look back at the biggest moments of a now-infamous spaceflight mission that captured the world's attention. Boeing Starliner launches from Florida on crewed test As the two astronauts selected for the Starliner's first crewed flight test, Wilmore and Williams launched June 5, 2024, on a mission to test a vehicle intended to one day join the SpaceX Dragon in transporting NASA astronauts to orbit. The Starliner capsule rode to orbit atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, Florida. The highly anticipated liftoff came after several delays over the course of about a month due to troubles detected with the spacecraft, including issues with a valve in the rocket's upper stage. Starliner crew reaches International Space Station Wilmore and Williams reached the International Space Station the next day, June 6, 2024, where they were expected to remain for about 10 days before returning home. But when they made it to the orbital outpost, engineers discovered a slew of helium leaks and problems with the craft's propulsion system that for months hampered Starliner's return to Earth. NASA opts to send Starliner back without crew Williams and Wimore's fate remained uncertain for months as NASA and Boeing deliberated on how best to get them home. That decision came Aug. 24, 2024 when NASA officials announced that the Starliner wasn't safe enough to crew, and would instead undock empty and return to Earth. The move, which dealt a blow to Boeing's hopes of getting the vehicle certified for regular space travel, would also free up a docking port at the station for the spacecraft now tasked with bringing Wilmore and Williams back. Under NASA's plan, the space agency selected a SpaceX Dragon bound the following month for the space station to transport Williams and Wilmore home. And to avoid having the station be understaffed, NASA opted to keep Williams and Wilmore at the station a few extra months rather than launch an emergency mission to return them to Earth. Empty Starliner undocks, lands in New Mexico The empty Boeing Starliner then undocked Sept. 6 and made its way back to Earth for a parachute-assisted landing in the New Mexico desert. At the time, Boeing had plenty of work ahead to prepare the vehicle for routine spaceflight – including more ground tests and potential modifications to remedy its propulsion system woes. Starliner's future as a second operational vehicle for NASA to transport crews and cargo to the space station remains unclear, though the space agency appears to still be working with Boeing to make the vehicle operational. SpaceX Crew-9 mission reaches ISS On Sept. 28, 2024, NASA launched the SpaceX Crew-9 mission as planned, but with one crucial change: Just two astronauts, Nick Hague of NASA and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, headed to the space station instead of four to leave two empty seats on their vehicle reserved for Wilmore and Williams. The pair arrived a day after getting off the ground on a spacecraft. But Wilmore and Williams didn't return with them right away. Instead, the Starliner astronauts were folded into the Crew-9 mission, and Williams even became commander of Expedition 72 – overseeing all of the spacefarers living and working at the space station. The plan then became Williams and Wilmore to return with Crew-9 in 2025 once Hague and Gorbunov completed their mission. Suni Williams makes history on spacewalk If it weren't for the extended mission, Williams would not have been able to set a record Jan. 30 during her ninth-ever spacewalk. After she and Wilmore spent more than six hours venturing outside the space station, Williams has now spent a cumulative 62 hours and 6 minutes in the vacuum of space – more than any other woman in the world. Only three other people in the world have spent more cumulative time on spacewalks than Williams. President Donald Trump, Elon Musk weigh in on Starliner saga After taking office in January, President Donald Trump weighed in several times on the Starliner mission, the delay of which he blamed on the Biden administration. He and billionaire ally Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, began characterizing the vehicle's crew as being "abandoned" or "stuck" in space – an assertion Wilmore and Williams have oft refuted. Trump also claimed that it was he who "authorized" Musk to retrieve the astronauts, despite the return plan being in place before he was elected. However, Trump did appear to have had an influence over NASA's decision to accelerate by about two weeks the launch of a mission that replaced Crew-9. SpaceX Crew-10 launches for International Space Station That mission, unsurprisingly known as Crew-10, launched March 14 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Crew-10 included a full contingent of four spacefarers, including mission commander Anne McClain of NASA, NASA pilot Nichole Ayers and two mission specialists from other space agencies: Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. After more than 28 hours traveling through orbit, Crew-10 reached the space station late March 15 – a critical step in setting the stage for Wilmore and Williams to embark on their long-awaited return trip. Starliner astronauts undock with Crew-9 Before the outgoing astronauts departed the station, they spent a few days helping the new arrivals familiarize themselves with the orbital laboratory and station operations during a handover period. Wilmore and Williams then boarded the Dragon with Hague and Gorbunov and undocked March 18 from the ISS's Harmony module, a port and passageway onto the station. Dragon carrying Starliner crew, Crew-9 lands off Florida coast About 17 hours later, the SpaceX Dragon vehicle – charred from its journey through Earth's atmosphere – deployed parachutes for a dramatic water landing March 19 off the coast of Florida. SpaceX teams then raced to retrieve the floating spacecraft and its crew of four, helping secure the Dragon and hoist it onto a recovery vessel. Once the Dragon was firmly in place on the ship's main deck, teams cut into the vehicle's side hatch to help Williams, Wilmore, Hague and Gorbunov exit. As commentators explained during NASA's livestream, the astronauts were placed onto stretchers – standard protocol after long-duration spaceflights – and taken to receive medical examinations. Once cleared, the four astronauts were taken on a short helicopter ride to board an airplane for a flight to NASA's headquarters in Houston, where they began their recovery. Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
James Webb Space Telescope unveils fiery origins of a distant, hellish exoplanet
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Astronomers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have uncovered the tumultuous history of a distant, hellishly hot exoplanet that's being stretched and scorched by its star. The planet, known as WASP-121b, is locked in a dangerously close orbit around a star roughly 900 light-years away that's brighter and hotter than our sun. Locked in a blistering 30-hour orbit, the world lies so close to its star that intense tidal forces have warped it into a football-like shape, leaving it on the verge of being torn apart by gravity. One side of the planet faces its star permanently, baking at temperatures over 3,000°C (5,400°F) — hot enough for it to rain liquid iron. Even the opposite hemisphere, locked in eternal night, simmers at 1,500°C (2,700°F). This extreme environment makes WASP-121b one of the most hostile planets ever observed, and a valuable target for planetary science. Now, using the James Webb Space Telescope's (JWST) Near Infrared Spectrograph instrument, or NIRSpec, a team led by astronomer Thomas Evans-Soma of the University of New Castle in Australia detected a cocktail of molecules in the planet's atmosphere that each carry chemical clues to its dramatic journey. These include water vapor, carbon monoxide, methane and, for the first time ever in a planetary atmosphere, silicon monoxide. Together, they tell a dramatic origin story of WASP-121b written in vapor and stone, described in two papers published Monday (June 2). "Studying the chemistry of ultra hot planets like WASP-121b helps us to understand how gas giant atmospheres work under extreme temperature conditions," Joanna Barstow, a planetary scientist at the Open University in the U.K. and a co-author of both new studies, said in a statement. The findings from both studies suggest WASP-121b did not form where it is today. Instead, it likely originated in a colder, more distant region of its planetary system, similar to the zone between Jupiter and Uranus in our own solar system. There, it would have accumulated methane-rich ices and heavy elements, embedding a distinct chemical signature in its growing atmosphere. Later, gravitational interactions — possibly with other planets — would have sent WASP-121b spiraling inward toward its star. As it moved closer, its supply of icy, oxygen-rich pebbles would've been cut off, but it should have been able to continue gathering carbon-rich gas. This would explain why the world's atmosphere today contains more carbon than oxygen, a chemical imbalance that offers a snapshot of its journey through the disk. To make sense of the complex atmospheric data, the second team of researchers, led by Cyril Gapp of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany, created 3D models of the planet's atmosphere, accounting for the vast temperature differences between the day and night sides. Their simulations, described in a paper published in The Astronomical Journal, helped separate signals from different regions of the planet as it orbited, revealing how molecules shift and circulate throughout the orbit. Among the molecules newly detected, the presence of silicon monoxide was particularly revealing, scientists say, as it isn't typically found in the gaseous form they observed. Instead, the researchers suggest this gas was originally locked in solid minerals like quartz within asteroid-size planetesimals that crashed into the young planet. Over time, as the planet grew and spiraled inward toward its star, those materials would have been vaporized and mixed into its atmosphere, according to one of the new papers, published in Nature Astronomy. Related Stories: — Scientists question possible signs of life on exoplanet K2-18b in new study: 'We never saw more than insignificant hints' — Scientists found a possible new dwarf planet — it could spell bad news for Planet 9 fans — Exoplanet 'baby pictures' reveal exomoons possibly taking shape around infant worlds On the cooler "night" side of WASP-121b, the researchers found an abundance of methane gas. This came as a surprise as methane typically breaks down under such heat, the study notes. "Given how hot this planet is, we weren't expecting to see methane on its nightside," study co-author Anjali Piette, who is an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Birmingham, said in a statement. Its presence suggests methane is being replenished, likely pulled up from deeper, cooler layers of the atmosphere. "This challenges exoplanet dynamical models, which will likely need to be adapted to reproduce the strong vertical mixing we've uncovered on the nightside of WASP-121b," study lead author Thomas Evans-Soma of the University of New Castle in Australia added in another statement.
