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At a glance
- Width
- 234 to 522 m
- about 1,890 bananas
- Speed
- 14.28 km/s
- 51,407 km/h · 31,943 mph
- Misses us by
- 184.9 lunar
- 71,107,175 km · 44,183,936 miles
- First spotted by us
- 13th November 2026
- 2 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
- AMOAmor: approaches Earth's orbit without ever crossing it. Looks threatening. Isn't.
- Year length
- 2.37 Earth years (865 days)One lap of the Sun. Your commute is shorter, and so is your patience.
- Eccentricity
- 0.303How squashed the orbit is. 0 is a perfect circle, 1 is "leaving". Noticeably oval. Mildly dramatic.
- Tilt
- 28.2°The angle of its orbit against the flat plane the planets share. Properly tilted. It mostly visits from above or below.
- Closest to the Sun
- 1.24 AU185 million km. One AU is the distance from Earth to the Sun.
- Furthest from the Sun
- 2.31 AU346 million km. Out past Mars.
- Closest orbit-to-orbit gap
- 0.473 AUIf you only compare the two orbits, not where the planets are, they come within 184 lunar distances. The rock is rarely there at the same time as us, which is the entire reason we are still here.
- Observations used
- 47NASA has measured this one 47 times. It has been stalked thoroughly.
- Watched for
- 12.2 years2007-11-20 to 2020-01-25. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 8th November 1917 | 188.1 LD · 72,322,243 km | 14.5 km/s |
| 16th November 1936 | 193.2 LD · 74,311,613 km | 14.2 km/s |
| 7th November 1962 | 191.8 LD · 73,746,373 km | 14.7 km/s |
| 15th November 1981 | 188.5 LD · 72,494,942 km | 14.2 km/s |
| 13th November 2026 (this one) | 184.9 LD · 71,107,175 km | 14.3 km/s |
| 11th November 2071 | 184.0 LD · 70,754,779 km | 14.4 km/s |
| 9th November 2116 | 186.5 LD · 71,738,494 km | 14.6 km/s |
| 18th November 2135 | 190.4 LD · 73,237,510 km | 14.2 km/s |
| 7th November 2161 | 193.0 LD · 74,217,580 km | 14.9 km/s |
| 15th November 2180 | 185.6 LD · 71,366,209 km | 14.3 km/s |
By the numbers
- Estimated mass
- 20.0 million tonnes to 224.0 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
- 11,316 Olympic poolsSphere volume at the middle width estimate, divided by 2,500 cubic metres per Olympic pool.
- Impact energy, if it hit
- 488 megatons to 5,458 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
- 1.3 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
- 0.48 timesDivided by Earth's own orbital speed of 29.78 km/s around the Sun.
- Time to cross the UK
- 67.9 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
- 57.6 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
- 237.2 secondsMiss distance divided by the speed of light.
- Width from brightness alone
- 234 to 522 mAstronomers estimate size from how bright an asteroid is (H 20.3) 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
- 5.14,449 days of observation divided by its 865-day year.
- Known close approaches, 1900 to 2200
- 100 inside the Moon's orbit and 0 within ten lunar distances.
- Closest pass in that period
- 183.98 lunar distancesOn 11th November 2071.
- Next visit after this one
- 11th November 2071At 184.0 lunar distances. Closer than this time.
- Average gap between visits
- 29.2 yearsThe span of the record divided by the number of gaps between approaches.
- Rank by size
- 7 of 42Among every asteroid this site has tracked, biggest first.
- Rank by closeness
- 37 of 42Among every asteroid this site has tracked, using each one's most recent pass, closest first.
- Rank by speed
- 24 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 2007 WX4 hit Earth? Questions answered
Will asteroid 2007 WX4 hit Earth?
No. 2007 WX4 passes Earth on 13th November 2026 at 184.9 lunar distances (71,107,175 km), which is 184.9 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 2007 WX4?
NASA estimates it is between 234 m and 522 m wide, which at the top end is about 5.0 football pitches long. Nobody has seen it up close, so the width is an estimate from its brightness.
How fast is asteroid 2007 WX4 travelling?
14.3 km/s relative to Earth at closest approach, about 51,407 km/h (31,943 mph). That is 1.9 times the speed of the International Space Station.
Is 2007 WX4 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. 2007 WX4 has an absolute magnitude of 20.3 and its orbit comes within 0.473 AU of Earth's.
When is asteroid 2007 WX4's next close approach?
After this pass, the next one in NASA's record is on 11th November 2071, at 184.0 lunar distances.
Unhelpful facts
- If this one did hit Earth, your next meeting would be cancelled. Look on the bright side.
- Roughly 803 car tyres wide. Check the tread before you worry about the rock.
- About 5.0 football pitches long. Still no better than a mid-table side.
- About 1,492 wheels of Gouda across. A brave scientist would call that a dairy event.
- That is 1,064 times the speed limit on a 30 zone. Nobody has fined it yet.
- 1,469 large pizzas wide. Delivery in thirty minutes or it is free (it will not be free).
- 2,176 basketballs wide. Somebody in the NBA has already asked for the numbers.
- Light crosses the gap in 237.19 seconds. That is not enough time to say "what was that".
- If it did hit, that would release roughly 5,458 megatons of TNT, assuming solid rock. It will not, so enjoy the number.
- It could overtake 57 commercial jets, and it would not even signal.
- 1.37 Empire State Buildings tall, if you insist on laying New York on its side.
- Misses by 184.9 times the distance to the Moon. The Moon has not filed a complaint.