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At a glance
- Width
- 211 to 472 m
- about 1,708 bananas
- Speed
- 20.30 km/s
- 73,078 km/h · 45,409 mph
- Misses us by
- 175.5 lunar
- 67,478,263 km · 41,929,036 miles
- First spotted by us
- 13th November 2026
- 5 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
- 0.95 Earth years (346 days)One lap of the Sun. Your commute is shorter, and so is your patience.
- Eccentricity
- 0.164How squashed the orbit is. 0 is a perfect circle, 1 is "leaving". This one is nearly circular and well behaved.
- Tilt
- 21.2°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
- 0.81 AU121 million km. One AU is the distance from Earth to the Sun.
- Furthest from the Sun
- 1.12 AU168 million km. Never leaves the inner solar system.
- Closest orbit-to-orbit gap
- 0.095 AUIf you only compare the two orbits, not where the planets are, they come within 37 lunar distances. The rock is rarely there at the same time as us, which is the entire reason we are still here.
- Observations used
- 81NASA has measured this one 81 times. It has been stalked thoroughly.
- Watched for
- 4.1 years2007-11-20 to 2011-12-19. Not long, so the orbit is still being refined and the rock is still a bit of a stranger.
- Orbit uncertainty
- 2 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 5th July 1920 | 125.2 LD · 48,157,854 km | 12.6 km/s |
| 1st December 1920 | 75.2 LD · 28,915,748 km | 11.1 km/s |
| 22nd May 1921 | 73.1 LD · 28,130,630 km | 13.1 km/s |
| 9th January 1922 | 152.4 LD · 58,612,595 km | 10.9 km/s |
| 16th April 1922 | 106.7 LD · 41,034,613 km | 14.7 km/s |
| 15th November 1936 | 150.3 LD · 57,797,582 km | 18.5 km/s |
| 17th November 1937 | 48.6 LD · 18,705,268 km | 12.3 km/s |
| 3rd July 1938 | 122.2 LD · 47,005,177 km | 12.7 km/s |
| 2nd December 1938 | 79.3 LD · 30,503,085 km | 11.2 km/s |
| 21st May 1939 | 72.1 LD · 27,728,497 km | 13.1 km/s |
By the numbers
- Estimated mass
- 14.8 million tonnes to 165.3 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
- 8,350 Olympic poolsSphere volume at the middle width estimate, divided by 2,500 cubic metres per Olympic pool.
- Impact energy, if it hit
- 728 megatons to 8,139 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
- 1.8 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
- 0.68 timesDivided by Earth's own orbital speed of 29.78 km/s around the Sun.
- Time to cross the UK
- 47.8 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
- 38.5 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
- 225.1 secondsMiss distance divided by the speed of light.
- Width from brightness alone
- 211 to 472 mAstronomers estimate size from how bright an asteroid is (H 20.5) 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
- 4.31,490 days of observation divided by its 346-day year.
- Known close approaches, 1900 to 2200
- 1250 inside the Moon's orbit and 0 within ten lunar distances.
- Closest pass in that period
- 45.94 lunar distancesOn 24th November 2082.
- Next visit after this one
- 16th November 2027At 67.6 lunar distances. Closer than this time.
- Average gap between visits
- 2.4 yearsThe span of the record divided by the number of gaps between approaches.
- Rank by size
- 9 of 42Among every asteroid this site has tracked, biggest first.
- Rank by closeness
- 35 of 42Among every asteroid this site has tracked, using each one's most recent pass, closest first.
- Rank by speed
- 5 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 2010 VX139 hit Earth? Questions answered
Will asteroid 2010 VX139 hit Earth?
No. 2010 VX139 passes Earth on 17th November 2026 at 175.5 lunar distances (67,478,263 km), which is 175.5 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 2010 VX139?
NASA estimates it is between 211 m and 472 m wide, which at the top end is about 4.5 football pitches long. Nobody has seen it up close, so the width is an estimate from its brightness.
How fast is asteroid 2010 VX139 travelling?
20.3 km/s relative to Earth at closest approach, about 73,078 km/h (45,409 mph). That is 2.7 times the speed of the International Space Station.
Is 2010 VX139 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. 2010 VX139 has an absolute magnitude of 20.5 and its orbit comes within 0.095 AU of Earth's.
When is asteroid 2010 VX139's next close approach?
After this pass, the next one in NASA's record is on 17th November 2026, at 175.5 lunar distances.
Unhelpful facts
- Light crosses the gap in 225.08 seconds. That is not enough time to say "what was that".
- That is 1,513 times the speed limit on a 30 zone. Nobody has fined it yet.
- Line up 78 elephants to match its width. The elephants would like to be consulted first.
- At this speed it covers the distance to the Moon in 5.3 hours. Your train replacement bus takes longer.
- 1,967 basketballs wide. Somebody in the NBA has already asked for the numbers.
- A jet would have to circle Earth 1,683 times to cover the gap. Baggage still lost.
- Misses by 175.5 times the distance to the Moon. The Moon has not filed a complaint.
- In the 38.5 days it takes to fly a gap that size, you could drink 2,770 cups of tea. Most would go cold.
- 1,327 large pizzas wide. Delivery in thirty minutes or it is free (it will not be free).
- It is moving 208 times faster than a sports car, and has never once paid a congestion charge.
- As fast as 1,634 Usain Bolts at top speed, none of whom have been told.
- Flying a gap that size takes it 38.5 days, which is 2,770 twenty-minute naps. Recommended.