NASA Tracks Newly Discovered Bus-Sized Asteroid as It Flies Past Earth

A newly discovered asteroid about the size of a school bus will zip safely by Earth on Thursday, flying just past our planet's network of satellites. The asteroid, designated 2025 QV5, is nearly 35 feet (11 metres) wide and will be travelling at a velocity in excess of 13,900 mph (22,400 kph). It is expected to swing past Earth to within 500,000 miles — about twice the distance to the moon — before going back into interplanetary space. Scientists state that it will not return this close until September 4, 2125, specifically a century later.

NASA to Track Safe but Unpredictable Asteroid 2025 QV5 for Future Flybys

According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Small-Body Database, the asteroid adheres to a near-circular orbit near the sun, completing one revolution in 359.4 days. The rock moves between Earth and Venus, evading impact because of gravitational nudges and burning up in Earth's atmosphere in the unlikely event.

NASA's Goldstone radar observatory is watching the harmless asteroid 2025 QV5 as it flies by. It will orbit it and watch how the asteroid behaves. It will pass within 10 million miles of Earth on Sept. 21, 2125, and again in 2026 and 2027.

There are tens of thousands of asteroids known in our solar system, and to be in a position to predict their paths over time—which shift over decades as they fly by or are pushed by other things—we need precise measurements.