Asteroids the Size of Buses Approaching Earth—Here's How Close They'll Get
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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NASA is tracking two bus-sized asteroids in the vicinity of the Earth that are whizzing through space at some 11,000 to 24,000 miles per hour.
A space rock known as "2025 HP22," measuring approximately 22 feet in diameter, is zipping past us at over 24,000 miles per hour this morning, coming as close as within 306,000 miles from the Earth, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
A slightly larger asteroid, known as "2025 JA"—measuring in at around 26 feet across—is also making a close approach today, according to the JPL's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS). Traveling at over 11,000 miles per hour, 2025 JA will get within 317,000 miles of the Earth.
NASA is also tracking two other asteroids near Earth today, including a larger bus-sized one called "2025 HR1" that's hurtling through space at around 14,000 miles per hour. Measuring about 42 feet in diameter, 2025 HR1 will make its closest approach at around 2.9 million miles from our planet, JPL astronomers said.
A house-sized space rock known as "2025 HJ5," spanning around 48 feet across, also zoomed past Earth today at around 17,000 miles per hour, getting within 2.5 million miles of our world, according to the CNEOS.
Mock up of two buses in space.
Mock up of two buses in space.
ISchneider / Nerthuz / Terry Papoulias/iStock / Getty Images Plus
Asteroids are small, rocky masses left over from the formation of the solar system nearly 4.6 billion years ago. They're concentrated in the main asteroid belt, orbiting around the sun between the paths of Mars and Jupiter.
Last month, an asteroid known as "2024 YR4" was estimated to be about 200 feet by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. "That's just about the height of a 15-story building," noted Andy Rivkin, an astronomer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, in a NASA blog post on April 2.
Back in February, data from the CNEOS showed the impact probability of 2024 YR4 in 2032 was at 3.1 percent. This marked "the highest impact probability NASA has ever recorded for an object of this size or larger," the space agency noted at the time.
However, further studies that month brought that asteroid's chance of Earth impact on December 22 in 2032 down to 0.004 percent. The data showed there is "no significant potential" for 2024 YR4 to "impact our planet for the next century." NASA added that "the range of possible locations the asteroid could be on Dec. 22, 2032, has moved farther away from the Earth" in a blog post on February 24.
There is still a "very small chance" for 2024 YR4 to impact the Moon on that date and that probability is currently 1.7 percent, the space agency said.
The orbits of asteroids bring them within 120 million miles of the sun. Most near-Earth objects (NEOs) are asteroids that range in size from about 10 feet to nearly 25 miles across.
NASA notes: "The majority of near-Earth objects have orbits that don't bring them very close to Earth, and therefore pose no risk of impact."
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