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NASA is monitoring a bus-sized asteroid that set to zip past the Earth at some 15,200 miles per hour.
The asteroid—"2025 PY1"— will make its closest approach at just 183,000 miles from our planet, according to the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
The space rock is estimated to be somewhere between 25–55 feet in diameter, according to the JPL's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).
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2025 PY1 is not the only asteroid that will be in the vicinity of our planet today; NASA is also tracking a plane-sized asteroid known as "2025 PB2," which is around 99 feet in diameter, as well as a house-sized one called "2025 QC," which is about 61 feet in diameter.
2025 PB2 is due to make its closest approach at around 1.34 million miles from the Earth, while 2025 QC will only get to within 3.47 million miles from our planet.
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Asteroids are small, rocky masses left over from the formation of the solar system around 4.6 billion years ago. They are found concentrated in the main asteroid belt, orbiting around the sun between the paths of Mars and Jupiter.
Those asteroids with orbits that bring them within 120 million miles of the sun are calssified as near-Earth objects (NEOs). Most NEOs range in size from around 10 feet to almost 25 miles across.
Back in February, CNEOS data showed that one asteroid—"2024 YR4"—had a 3.1 percent chance of impacting Earth in 2032. This was "the highest impact probability NASA has ever recorded for an object of this size or larger," the space agency noted at the time.
Following more observations, NASA concluded in June that "the object poses no significant impact risk to Earth in 2032 and beyond"—but the same might not be said for the moon.
"The asteroid's probability of impacting the Moon has slightly increased from 3.8 percent to 4.3 percent," the space agency has said, explaining that "in the small chance that the asteroid were to impact, it would not alter the Moon's orbit."
According to NASA, "Asteroid 2024 YR4 is now too far away to observe with either space or ground-based telescopes. NASA expects to make further observations when the asteroid's orbit around the Sun brings it back into the vicinity of Earth in 2028."
"The majority of near-Earth objects have orbits that don't bring them very close to Earth, and therefore pose no risk of impact," NASA notes.
Potentially Hazardous Asteroids
However, a small portion of them, known as potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs), do require closer observation.
Measuring more than around 460 feet in size, PHAs have orbits that bring them as close as within 4.6 million miles of the Earth's orbit around the sun.
Despite the number of PHAs out in our solar system, none are likely to hit Earth any time soon.
"The 'potentially hazardous' designation simply means over many centuries and millennia the asteroid's orbit may evolve into one that has a chance of impacting Earth.
We do not assess these long-term, many-century possibilities of impact," CNEOS manager Paul Chodas previously told Newsweek.
Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about asteroids? Let us know via science@newsweek.com.
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