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At a glance
- Width
- 128 to 287 m
- about 1,038 bananas
- Speed
- 17.18 km/s
- 61,842 km/h · 38,427 mph
- Misses us by
- 87.5 lunar
- 33,661,031 km · 20,915,989 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
- 0.81 Earth years (295 days)One lap of the Sun. Your commute is shorter, and so is your patience.
- Eccentricity
- 0.481How squashed the orbit is. 0 is a perfect circle, 1 is "leaving". Noticeably oval. Mildly dramatic.
- Tilt
- 31.7°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
- 0.45 AU67 million km. One AU is the distance from Earth to the Sun.
- Furthest from the Sun
- 1.28 AU192 million km. Never leaves the inner solar system.
- Closest orbit-to-orbit gap
- 0.104 AUIf you only compare the two orbits, not where the planets are, they come within 40 lunar distances. The rock is rarely there at the same time as us, which is the entire reason we are still here.
- Observations used
- 85NASA has measured this one 85 times. It has been stalked thoroughly.
- Watched for
- 13.0 years2009-11-21 to 2022-11-17. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 16th November 2131 | 44.8 LD · 17,212,381 km | 18.8 km/s |
| 17th November 2135 | 71.9 LD · 27,665,084 km | 23.2 km/s |
| 24th November 2139 | 149.6 LD · 57,523,109 km | 29.3 km/s |
| 13th December 2140 | 178.2 LD · 68,514,325 km | 16.8 km/s |
| 17th April 2141 | 194.1 LD · 74,632,900 km | 26.3 km/s |
| 30th November 2144 | 140.7 LD · 54,097,346 km | 16.8 km/s |
| 19th November 2148 | 88.3 LD · 33,975,992 km | 17.2 km/s |
| 15th November 2152 | 40.3 LD · 15,491,620 km | 19.4 km/s |
| 18th November 2156 | 84.6 LD · 32,528,460 km | 24.2 km/s |
| 29th March 2158 | 193.8 LD · 74,512,202 km | 23.4 km/s |
By the numbers
- Estimated mass
- 3.3 million tonnes to 37.2 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
- 1,878 Olympic poolsSphere volume at the middle width estimate, divided by 2,500 cubic metres per Olympic pool.
- Impact energy, if it hit
- 117 megatons to 1,311 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
- 1.5 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
- 0.58 timesDivided by Earth's own orbital speed of 29.78 km/s around the Sun.
- Time to cross the UK
- 56.5 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
- 22.7 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
- 112.3 secondsMiss distance divided by the speed of light.
- Width from brightness alone
- 128 to 287 mAstronomers estimate size from how bright an asteroid is (H 21.6) 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
- 16.14,744 days of observation divided by its 295-day year.
- Known close approaches, 1900 to 2200
- 1050 inside the Moon's orbit and 0 within ten lunar distances.
- Closest pass in that period
- 40.16 lunar distancesOn 15th November 2173.
- Next visit after this one
- 14th November 2030At 40.9 lunar distances. Closer than this time.
- Average gap between visits
- 2.9 yearsThe span of the record divided by the number of gaps between approaches.
- Rank by size
- 15 of 42Among every asteroid this site has tracked, biggest first.
- Rank by closeness
- 19 of 42Among every asteroid this site has tracked, using each one's most recent pass, closest first.
- Rank by speed
- 14 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 2009 WR25 hit Earth? Questions answered
Will asteroid 2009 WR25 hit Earth?
No. 2009 WR25 passes Earth on 18th November 2026 at 87.5 lunar distances (33,661,031 km), which is 87.5 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 2009 WR25?
NASA estimates it is between 128 m and 287 m wide, which at the top end is about 2.7 football pitches long. Nobody has seen it up close, so the width is an estimate from its brightness.
How fast is asteroid 2009 WR25 travelling?
17.2 km/s relative to Earth at closest approach, about 61,842 km/h (38,427 mph). That is 2.2 times the speed of the International Space Station.
Is 2009 WR25 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. 2009 WR25 has an absolute magnitude of 21.6 and its orbit comes within 0.104 AU of Earth's.
When is asteroid 2009 WR25's next close approach?
After this pass, the next one in NASA's record is on 18th November 2026, at 87.5 lunar distances.
Unhelpful facts
- It could overtake 68 commercial jets, and it would not even signal.
- It is moving 176 times faster than a sports car, and has never once paid a congestion charge.
- Roughly 441 car tyres wide. Check the tread before you worry about the rock.
- Light crosses the gap in 112.28 seconds. That is not enough time to say "what was that".
- 1,196 basketballs wide. Somebody in the NBA has already asked for the numbers.
- It passes in 5 days, which is 35 dog days. Your dog is already nervous, mostly about the post.
- About 820 wheels of Gouda across. A brave scientist would call that a dairy event.
- If it did hit, that would release roughly 1,311 megatons of TNT, assuming solid rock. It will not, so enjoy the number.
- 22.50% of the way to the Sun. Nobody is cancelling summer.
- If this one did hit Earth, your next meeting would be cancelled. Look on the bright side.
- A UK train would take 38.4 years to cross the same gap, plus delays "due to a train being late".
- In the 22.7 days it takes to fly a gap that size, you could drink 1,632 cups of tea. Most would go cold.