At a glance
- Width
- 280 to 625 m
- about 2,262 bananas
- Speed
- 15.65 km/s
- 56,343 km/h · 35,010 mph
- Misses us by
- 163.1 lunar
- 62,720,241 km · 38,972,539 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
- APOApollo: crosses Earth's orbit, but spends most of its time further out than us. The most common troublemaker type.
- Year length
- 2.34 Earth years (855 days)One lap of the Sun. Your commute is shorter, and so is your patience.
- Eccentricity
- 0.762How squashed the orbit is. 0 is a perfect circle, 1 is "leaving". Very stretched. This rock commutes the long way round.
- Tilt
- 17.4°The angle of its orbit against the flat plane the planets share. Slightly tipsy.
- Closest to the Sun
- 0.42 AU63 million km. One AU is the distance from Earth to the Sun.
- Furthest from the Sun
- 3.11 AU465 million km. Out past Mars.
- Closest orbit-to-orbit gap
- 0.240 AUIf you only compare the two orbits, not where the planets are, they come within 94 lunar distances. The rock is rarely there at the same time as us, which is the entire reason we are still here.
- Observations used
- 45NASA has measured this one 45 times. It has been stalked thoroughly.
- Watched for
- 7.0 years2012-12-22 to 2019-12-10. Not long, so the orbit is still being refined and the rock is still a bit of a stranger.
- 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 April 1935 | 142.0 LD · 54,597,831 km | 31.7 km/s |
| 16th November 1937 | 167.3 LD · 64,340,676 km | 15.1 km/s |
| 26th April 1942 | 118.5 LD · 45,574,006 km | 26.0 km/s |
| 30th November 1944 | 111.3 LD · 42,794,881 km | 21.5 km/s |
| 9th May 1949 | 136.1 LD · 52,356,187 km | 20.7 km/s |
| 9th December 1951 | 96.3 LD · 37,050,110 km | 26.9 km/s |
| 1st June 1956 | 174.1 LD · 66,964,927 km | 20.1 km/s |
| 16th December 1958 | 124.3 LD · 47,791,087 km | 32.2 km/s |
| 24th December 1965 | 171.7 LD · 66,015,615 km | 37.3 km/s |
| 11th April 2017 | 164.9 LD · 63,401,402 km | 34.8 km/s |
By the numbers
- Estimated mass
- 34.3 million tonnes to 383.9 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
- 19,395 Olympic poolsSphere volume at the middle width estimate, divided by 2,500 cubic metres per Olympic pool.
- Impact energy, if it hit
- 1,005 megatons to 11,238 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
- 1.4 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
- 0.53 timesDivided by Earth's own orbital speed of 29.78 km/s around the Sun.
- Time to cross the UK
- 62.0 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
- 46.4 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
- 209.2 secondsMiss distance divided by the speed of light.
- Width from brightness alone
- 280 to 625 mAstronomers estimate size from how bright an asteroid is (H 19.9) 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
- 3.02,544 days of observation divided by its 855-day year.
- Known close approaches, 1900 to 2200
- 380 inside the Moon's orbit and 0 within ten lunar distances.
- Closest pass in that period
- 88.08 lunar distancesOn 12th December 2190.
- Next visit after this one
- 27th April 2031At 117.1 lunar distances. Closer than this time.
- Average gap between visits
- 7.1 yearsThe span of the record divided by the number of gaps between approaches.
- Rank by size
- 6 of 42Among every asteroid this site has tracked, biggest first.
- Rank by closeness
- 31 of 42Among every asteroid this site has tracked, using each one's most recent pass, closest first.
- Rank by speed
- 19 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 2013 AZ52 hit Earth? Questions answered
Will asteroid 2013 AZ52 hit Earth?
No. 2013 AZ52 passes Earth on 20th November 2026 at 163.1 lunar distances (62,720,241 km), which is 163.1 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 2013 AZ52?
NASA estimates it is between 280 m and 625 m wide, which at the top end is about 6.0 football pitches long. Nobody has seen it up close, so the width is an estimate from its brightness.
How fast is asteroid 2013 AZ52 travelling?
15.7 km/s relative to Earth at closest approach, about 56,343 km/h (35,010 mph). That is 2.0 times the speed of the International Space Station.
Is 2013 AZ52 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. 2013 AZ52 has an absolute magnitude of 19.9 and its orbit comes within 0.240 AU of Earth's.
When is asteroid 2013 AZ52's next close approach?
After this pass, the next one in NASA's record is on 20th November 2026, at 163.1 lunar distances.
Unhelpful facts
- As fast as 1,259 Usain Bolts at top speed, none of whom have been told.
- 1,758 large pizzas wide. Delivery in thirty minutes or it is free (it will not be free).
- 1.64 Empire State Buildings tall, if you insist on laying New York on its side.
- It passes in 7 days, which is 49 dog days. Your dog is already nervous, mostly about the post.
- Misses by 163.1 times the distance to the Moon. The Moon has not filed a complaint.
- A snail would need 152,233 years to cover the gap. The snail would take the day off.
- About 6.0 football pitches long. Still no better than a mid-table side.
- It is moving 160 times faster than a sports car, and has never once paid a congestion charge.
- A UK train would take 71.6 years to cross the same gap, plus delays "due to a train being late".
- Flying a gap that size takes it 46.4 days, which is 3,339 twenty-minute naps. Recommended.
- At this speed it covers the distance to the Moon in 6.8 hours. Your train replacement bus takes longer.
- A jet would have to circle Earth 1,565 times to cover the gap. Baggage still lost.