At a glance
- Width
- 93 to 209 m
- about 755 bananas
- Speed
- 22.97 km/s
- 82,676 km/h · 51,372 mph
- Misses us by
- 192.4 lunar
- 73,976,805 km · 45,967,041 miles
- First spotted by us
- 15th November 2026
- 15 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
- 0.79 Earth years (289 days)One lap of the Sun. Your commute is shorter, and so is your patience.
- Eccentricity
- 0.375How squashed the orbit is. 0 is a perfect circle, 1 is "leaving". Noticeably oval. Mildly dramatic.
- Tilt
- 28.8°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
- 0.53 AU80 million km. One AU is the distance from Earth to the Sun.
- Furthest from the Sun
- 1.17 AU176 million km. Never leaves the inner solar system.
- Closest orbit-to-orbit gap
- 0.164 AUIf you only compare the two orbits, not where the planets are, they come within 64 lunar distances. The rock is rarely there at the same time as us, which is the entire reason we are still here.
- Observations used
- 92NASA has measured this one 92 times. It has been stalked thoroughly.
- Watched for
- 15.0 years2008-04-07 to 2023-04-26. Long enough to know it well.
- Orbit uncertainty
- 1 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 3rd November 2124 | 184.6 LD · 70,978,859 km | 25.2 km/s |
| 27th April 2125 | 123.2 LD · 47,381,206 km | 16.7 km/s |
| 23rd March 2128 | 130.5 LD · 50,193,323 km | 19.6 km/s |
| 7th October 2128 | 180.1 LD · 69,277,774 km | 25.8 km/s |
| 2nd May 2129 | 190.5 LD · 73,255,895 km | 22.0 km/s |
| 29th March 2132 | 71.7 LD · 27,556,852 km | 15.6 km/s |
| 10th September 2132 | 186.7 LD · 71,782,849 km | 24.0 km/s |
| 11th April 2136 | 71.9 LD · 27,633,207 km | 15.0 km/s |
| 9th November 2139 | 186.8 LD · 71,820,956 km | 24.7 km/s |
| 25th April 2140 | 111.8 LD · 42,989,345 km | 16.1 km/s |
By the numbers
- Estimated mass
- 1.3 million tonnes to 14.3 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
- 724 Olympic poolsSphere volume at the middle width estimate, divided by 2,500 cubic metres per Olympic pool.
- Impact energy, if it hit
- 81 megatons to 903 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
- 2.1 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
- 0.77 timesDivided by Earth's own orbital speed of 29.78 km/s around the Sun.
- Time to cross the UK
- 42.2 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
- 37.3 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
- 246.8 secondsMiss distance divided by the speed of light.
- Width from brightness alone
- 93 to 209 mAstronomers estimate size from how bright an asteroid is (H 22.3) 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
- 19.05,497 days of observation divided by its 289-day year.
- Known close approaches, 1900 to 2200
- 1620 inside the Moon's orbit and 0 within ten lunar distances.
- Closest pass in that period
- 64.29 lunar distancesOn 3rd April 2102.
- Next visit after this one
- 17th April 2027At 88.6 lunar distances. Closer than this time.
- Average gap between visits
- 1.8 yearsThe span of the record divided by the number of gaps between approaches.
- Rank by size
- 20 of 47Among every asteroid this site has tracked, biggest first.
- Rank by closeness
- 47 of 47Among every asteroid this site has tracked, using each one's most recent pass, closest first.
- Rank by speed
- 5 of 47Among 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 2008 GS3 hit Earth? Questions answered
Will asteroid 2008 GS3 hit Earth?
No. 2008 GS3 passes Earth on 22nd November 2026 at 192.4 lunar distances (73,976,805 km), which is 192.4 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 2008 GS3?
NASA estimates it is between 93 m and 209 m wide, which at the top end is about 2.0 football pitches long. Nobody has seen it up close, so the width is an estimate from its brightness.
How fast is asteroid 2008 GS3 travelling?
23.0 km/s relative to Earth at closest approach, about 82,676 km/h (51,372 mph). That is 3.0 times the speed of the International Space Station.
Is 2008 GS3 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. 2008 GS3 has an absolute magnitude of 22.3 and its orbit comes within 0.164 AU of Earth's.
When is asteroid 2008 GS3's next close approach?
After this pass, the next one in NASA's record is on 22nd November 2026, at 192.4 lunar distances.
Unhelpful facts
- A UK train would take 84.4 years to cross the same gap, plus delays "due to a train being late".
- Roughly 321 car tyres wide. Check the tread before you worry about the rock.
- That is 1,712 times the speed limit on a 30 zone. Nobody has fined it yet.
- 0.55 Empire State Buildings tall, if you insist on laying New York on its side.
- 870 basketballs wide. Somebody in the NBA has already asked for the numbers.
- Misses by 192.4 times the distance to the Moon. The Moon has not filed a complaint.
- Line up 34 elephants to match its width. The elephants would like to be consulted first.
- It is moving 236 times faster than a sports car, and has never once paid a congestion charge.
- At this speed it covers the distance to the Moon in 4.6 hours. Your train replacement bus takes longer.
- A snail would need 179,554 years to cover the gap. The snail would take the day off.
- Light crosses the gap in 246.76 seconds. That is not enough time to say "what was that".
- It passes in 7 days, which is 49 dog days. Your dog is already nervous, mostly about the post.