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At a glance
- Width
- 33 to 75 m
- about 270 bananas
- Speed
- 16.74 km/s
- 60,268 km/h · 37,449 mph
- Misses us by
- 154.7 lunar
- 59,511,095 km · 36,978,469 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
- ATEAten: crosses Earth's orbit while spending most of its time inside it, between us and the Sun.
- Year length
- 0.88 Earth years (322 days)One lap of the Sun. Your commute is shorter, and so is your patience.
- Eccentricity
- 0.431How squashed the orbit is. 0 is a perfect circle, 1 is "leaving". Noticeably oval. Mildly dramatic.
- Tilt
- 14.8°The angle of its orbit against the flat plane the planets share. Slightly tipsy.
- Closest to the Sun
- 0.52 AU78 million km. One AU is the distance from Earth to the Sun.
- Furthest from the Sun
- 1.32 AU197 million km. Never leaves the inner solar system.
- Closest orbit-to-orbit gap
- 0.037 AUIf you only compare the two orbits, not where the planets are, they come within 14 lunar distances. The rock is rarely there at the same time as us, which is the entire reason we are still here.
- Observations used
- 27NASA has measured this one 27 times. It has been stalked thoroughly.
- Watched for
- 7 days2013-05-08 to 2013-05-15. Not long, so the orbit is still being refined and the rock is still a bit of a stranger.
- Orbit uncertainty
- 7 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 12th May 1983 | 49.5 LD · 19,033,148 km | 17.8 km/s |
| 1st May 1991 | 163.7 LD · 62,969,783 km | 26.8 km/s |
| 26th January 1996 | 110.1 LD · 42,356,177 km | 18.1 km/s |
| 4th November 1996 | 167.2 LD · 64,283,812 km | 18.5 km/s |
| 25th March 1997 | 149.2 LD · 57,390,967 km | 11.3 km/s |
| 23rd August 1997 | 192.5 LD · 74,029,073 km | 17.7 km/s |
| 14th May 1998 | 20.5 LD · 7,890,463 km | 15.4 km/s |
| 26th December 2003 | 113.4 LD · 43,622,137 km | 11.6 km/s |
| 1st October 2004 | 191.0 LD · 73,437,273 km | 20.9 km/s |
| 26th April 2005 | 107.9 LD · 41,479,052 km | 11.0 km/s |
By the numbers
- Estimated mass
- 58,855 tonnes to 658,021 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
- 33 Olympic poolsSphere volume at the middle width estimate, divided by 2,500 cubic metres per Olympic pool.
- Impact energy, if it hit
- 2.0 megatons to 22 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
- 0.56 timesDivided by Earth's own orbital speed of 29.78 km/s around the Sun.
- Time to cross the UK
- 57.9 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
- 41.1 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
- 198.5 secondsMiss distance divided by the speed of light.
- Width from brightness alone
- 33 to 75 mAstronomers estimate size from how bright an asteroid is (H 24.5) 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
- 0.07 days of observation divided by its 322-day year.
- Known close approaches, 1900 to 2200
- 500 inside the Moon's orbit and 0 within ten lunar distances.
- Closest pass in that period
- 15.04 lunar distancesOn 15th May 1945.
- Next visit after this one
- 14th March 2027At 150.6 lunar distances. Closer than this time.
- Average gap between visits
- 3.2 yearsThe span of the record divided by the number of gaps between approaches.
- Rank by size
- 28 of 42Among every asteroid this site has tracked, biggest first.
- Rank by closeness
- 29 of 42Among every asteroid this site has tracked, using each one's most recent pass, closest first.
- Rank by speed
- 16 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 JL14 hit Earth? Questions answered
Will asteroid 2013 JL14 hit Earth?
No. 2013 JL14 passes Earth on 17th November 2026 at 154.7 lunar distances (59,511,095 km), which is 154.7 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 JL14?
NASA estimates it is between 33 m and 75 m wide, which at the top end is about 0.7 football pitches long. Nobody has seen it up close, so the width is an estimate from its brightness.
How fast is asteroid 2013 JL14 travelling?
16.7 km/s relative to Earth at closest approach, about 60,268 km/h (37,449 mph). That is 2.2 times the speed of the International Space Station.
Is 2013 JL14 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 JL14 has an absolute magnitude of 24.5 and its orbit comes within 0.037 AU of Earth's.
When is asteroid 2013 JL14's next close approach?
After this pass, the next one in NASA's record is on 17th November 2026, at 154.7 lunar distances.
Unhelpful facts
- About 0.71 of a football pitch long. VAR would be unimpressed.
- Roughly 115 car tyres wide. Check the tread before you worry about the rock.
- A snail would need 144,444 years to cover the gap. The snail would take the day off.
- It is moving 172 times faster than a sports car, and has never once paid a congestion charge.
- It could overtake 66 commercial jets, and it would not even signal.
- Line up 12 elephants to match its width. The elephants would like to be consulted first.
- A UK train would take 67.9 years to cross the same gap, plus delays "due to a train being late".
- Flying a gap that size takes it 41.1 days, which is 2,962 twenty-minute naps. Recommended.
- Misses by 154.7 times the distance to the Moon. The Moon has not filed a complaint.
- A jet would have to circle Earth 1,484 times to cover the gap. Baggage still lost.
- It passes in 4 days, which is 28 dog days. Your dog is already nervous, mostly about the post.
- At its speed it covers a gap the size of its miss distance in 41.1 days. A group chat would still be picking a restaurant.