← 2016 WL48All rocks2010 VX139 →
At a glance
- Width
- 379 to 847 m
- about 3,065 bananas
- Speed
- 11.99 km/s
- 43,177 km/h · 26,829 mph
- Misses us by
- 173.0 lunar
- 66,518,862 km · 41,332,892 miles
- First spotted by us
- 13th November 2026
- 7 page views
How far is "close"?
Same gap, ranked against places you have heard of, on a log scale because the Sun is awkwardly far away.
How big is it, really?
NASA only estimates the width, so we show the biggest guess. Log scale again. Everest is just there to make everything else look reasonable.
How fast is it going?
Speed relative to Earth at closest approach. The International Space Station is the fastest thing most of us will ever stand under. This lot would lap it.
If it hit (it will not)
Rough impact energy at the biggest size estimate, assuming solid rock, in tonnes, kilotons and megatons of TNT, which is how everyone who has to do this maths measures it. Treat it as a ballpark. The point stands: no impact is scheduled.
Where it actually lives
A top-down view of the orbit, to scale, with Earth's and Mars's orbits for company. The tilt of the orbit is ignored, so treat the shape as right and the exact position as roughly right. The Sun is the orange dot in the middle.
- Orbit class
- ATEAten: crosses Earth's orbit while spending most of its time inside it, between us and the Sun.
- Year length
- 0.62 Earth years (225 days)One lap of the Sun. Your commute is shorter, and so is your patience.
- Eccentricity
- 0.383How squashed the orbit is. 0 is a perfect circle, 1 is "leaving". Noticeably oval. Mildly dramatic.
- Tilt
- 8.1°The angle of its orbit against the flat plane the planets share. Slightly tipsy.
- Closest to the Sun
- 0.45 AU67 million km. One AU is the distance from Earth to the Sun.
- Furthest from the Sun
- 1.00 AU150 million km. Never leaves the inner solar system.
- Closest orbit-to-orbit gap
- 0.077 AUIf you only compare the two orbits, not where the planets are, they come within 30 lunar distances. The rock is rarely there at the same time as us, which is the entire reason we are still here.
- Observations used
- 1,294NASA has measured this one 1,294 times. It has been stalked thoroughly.
- Watched for
- 21.1 years2001-02-13 to 2022-04-07. Long enough to know it well.
- Orbit uncertainty
- 0 out of 90 means we know exactly where it is going. 9 means a shrug. Lower is better.
Is it actually hazardous?
This one fails at least one test, so it is not on the list. It is comfortably, boringly harmless.
Not on NASA's Sentry impact-risk watch list. No further action, no thoughts, head empty.
Its history with us
Every known pass this rock makes, 1900 to 2200. Dim dots are the past, green dots are still to come, the big orange ring is this one. The dashed line is the Moon's distance, so anything below it is closer than the Moon. Almost nothing is.
| Date | Miss distance | Speed |
|---|---|---|
| 19th February 1959 | 40.0 LD · 15,395,936 km | 7.2 km/s |
| 17th February 1962 | 166.8 LD · 64,138,723 km | 22.4 km/s |
| 6th July 1962 | 191.2 LD · 73,547,995 km | 16.3 km/s |
| 22nd November 1963 | 167.1 LD · 64,273,942 km | 10.9 km/s |
| 21st March 1964 | 106.2 LD · 40,840,002 km | 15.4 km/s |
| 6th February 1967 | 45.7 LD · 17,583,036 km | 11.4 km/s |
| 15th May 1967 | 138.5 LD · 53,272,847 km | 4.4 km/s |
| 20th March 1972 | 56.0 LD · 21,546,449 km | 8.9 km/s |
| 12th February 1975 | 117.1 LD · 45,048,360 km | 18.0 km/s |
| 21st June 1975 | 175.7 LD · 67,550,656 km | 13.1 km/s |
By the numbers
- Estimated mass
- 85.5 million tonnes to 955.5 million tonnesVolume of a sphere at NASA's smallest and largest width estimates, times 3,000 kg per cubic metre (typical rock). Real shapes are lumpier, so treat it as a ballpark.
- Swimming pools of rock
- 48,271 Olympic poolsSphere volume at the middle width estimate, divided by 2,500 cubic metres per Olympic pool.
- Impact energy, if it hit
- 1,469 megatons to 16,426 megatonsHalf mass times speed squared, at the small and large width estimates, converted to TNT (1 kiloton is 4.184 trillion joules). A rock this far away is not going to do this.
- Speed against escape velocity
- 1.1 timesIts speed relative to Earth, divided by the 11.186 km/s needed to leave Earth's gravity. It is travelling a lot faster than we can throw things.
- Speed against Earth in orbit
- 0.40 timesDivided by Earth's own orbital speed of 29.78 km/s around the Sun.
- Time to cross the UK
- 80.9 secondsLand's End to John o' Groats is about 970 km in a straight line. Divided by its speed.
- Time to fly the miss distance
- 64.2 daysThe miss distance divided by its speed. This is how long it needs to cover a gap of that size, which is a measure of how near or far the pass is.
- Light takes to cross the gap
- 221.9 secondsMiss distance divided by the speed of light.
- Width from brightness alone
- 379 to 847 mAstronomers estimate size from how bright an asteroid is (H 19.2) and how reflective it is. A shiny rock (albedo 0.25) is smaller than a dark one (0.05) for the same brightness. NASA's own estimate above uses the same idea.
- Laps of the Sun since first spotted
- 34.37,723 days of observation divided by its 225-day year.
- Known close approaches, 1900 to 2200
- 1600 inside the Moon's orbit and 0 within ten lunar distances.
- Closest pass in that period
- 29.27 lunar distancesOn 6th February 1917.
- Next visit after this one
- 21st March 2027At 118.5 lunar distances. Closer than this time.
- Average gap between visits
- 1.9 yearsThe span of the record divided by the number of gaps between approaches.
- Rank by size
- 4 of 42Among every asteroid this site has tracked, biggest first.
- Rank by closeness
- 33 of 42Among every asteroid this site has tracked, using each one's most recent pass, closest first.
- Rank by speed
- 28 of 42Among every asteroid this site has tracked, fastest first.
How reliable are these?
Width, speed, miss distance and orbit come straight from NASA. Mass, energy, volume and the rankings are our own arithmetic on top, and the assumptions are written beside each one. NASA publishes a range for width because nobody has seen most of these rocks up close, so wherever we show one number it uses the biggest estimate and says so.
Will asteroid 322756 2001 CK32 hit Earth? Questions answered
Will asteroid 322756 2001 CK32 hit Earth?
No. 322756 2001 CK32 passes Earth on 17th November 2026 at 173.0 lunar distances (66,518,862 km), which is 173.0 times the distance to the Moon. It is not on NASA's potentially hazardous list. It is not on NASA's Sentry impact-risk watch list.
How big is asteroid 322756 2001 CK32?
NASA estimates it is between 379 m and 847 m wide, which at the top end is about 8.1 football pitches long. Nobody has seen it up close, so the width is an estimate from its brightness.
How fast is asteroid 322756 2001 CK32 travelling?
12.0 km/s relative to Earth at closest approach, about 43,177 km/h (26,829 mph). That is 1.6 times the speed of the International Space Station.
Is 322756 2001 CK32 a potentially hazardous asteroid?
No. NASA gives the label to asteroids whose orbit comes within 0.05 astronomical units of Earth's (about 7.5 million km) and which are bigger than roughly 140 m. 322756 2001 CK32 has an absolute magnitude of 19.2 and its orbit comes within 0.077 AU of Earth's.
When is asteroid 322756 2001 CK32's next close approach?
After this pass, the next one in NASA's record is on 17th November 2026, at 173.0 lunar distances.
Unhelpful facts
- It could overtake 47 commercial jets, and it would not even signal.
- Absolute magnitude of 19.2. Lower means brighter, so the biggest numbers belong to the smallest rocks. Astronomers did that on purpose.
- Roughly 1,303 car tyres wide. Check the tread before you worry about the rock.
- Line up 141 elephants to match its width. The elephants would like to be consulted first.
- Misses by 173.0 times the distance to the Moon. The Moon has not filed a complaint.
- A jet would have to circle Earth 1,659 times to cover the gap. Baggage still lost.
- Light crosses the gap in 221.88 seconds. That is not enough time to say "what was that".
- At its speed it covers a gap the size of its miss distance in 64.2 days. A group chat would still be picking a restaurant.
- At this speed it covers the distance to the Moon in 8.9 hours. Your train replacement bus takes longer.
- A snail would need 161,453 years to cover the gap. The snail would take the day off.
- It is moving 123 times faster than a sports car, and has never once paid a congestion charge.
- 3,530 basketballs wide. Somebody in the NBA has already asked for the numbers.