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At a glance
- Width
- 4 to 9 m
- about 32 bananas
- Speed
- 3.54 km/s
- 12,726 km/h · 7,908 mph
- Misses us by
- 57.2 lunar
- 21,996,732 km · 13,668,132 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 (321 days)One lap of the Sun. Your commute is shorter, and so is your patience.
- Eccentricity
- 0.116How squashed the orbit is. 0 is a perfect circle, 1 is "leaving". This one is nearly circular and well behaved.
- Tilt
- 0.5°The angle of its orbit against the flat plane the planets share. Basically flat, so it shares our neighbourhood.
- Closest to the Sun
- 0.81 AU121 million km. One AU is the distance from Earth to the Sun.
- Furthest from the Sun
- 1.02 AU153 million km. Never leaves the inner solar system.
- Closest orbit-to-orbit gap
- 0.002 AUIf you only compare the two orbits, not where the planets are, they come within 1 lunar distances. The rock is rarely there at the same time as us, which is the entire reason we are still here.
- Observations used
- 24NASA has measured this one 24 times. It has been stalked thoroughly.
- Watched for
- 7 days2019-07-04 to 2019-07-11. Not long, so the orbit is still being refined and the rock is still a bit of a stranger.
- Orbit uncertainty
- 6 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.
On NASA's Sentry watch list, which means "monitored for any future chance of impact", not "doomed". Every watch-list rock so far has been cleared or filed under "very unlikely".
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 22nd June 2011 | 126.7 LD · 48,706,960 km | 11.8 km/s |
| 20th January 2012 | 65.4 LD · 25,151,995 km | 4.5 km/s |
| 17th August 2012 | 126.0 LD · 48,450,776 km | 11.7 km/s |
| 9th July 2019 | 2.6 LD · 1,008,788 km | 1.8 km/s |
| 5th June 2026 | 55.0 LD · 21,154,730 km | 6.2 km/s |
| 18th November 2026 (this one) | 57.2 LD · 21,996,732 km | 3.5 km/s |
| 13th June 2033 | 134.3 LD · 51,640,735 km | 12.4 km/s |
| 11th January 2034 | 66.7 LD · 25,669,293 km | 4.6 km/s |
| 7th August 2034 | 126.1 LD · 48,491,323 km | 11.8 km/s |
| 7th March 2041 | 55.0 LD · 21,161,257 km | 3.3 km/s |
By the numbers
- Estimated mass
- 102 tonnes to 1,144 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
- 0 Olympic poolsSphere volume at the middle width estimate, divided by 2,500 cubic metres per Olympic pool.
- Impact energy, if it hit
- 153 tonnes to 1.7 kilotonsHalf 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
- 0.3 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
- 0.12 timesDivided by Earth's own orbital speed of 29.78 km/s around the Sun.
- Time to cross the UK
- 274.4 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
- 72.0 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
- 73.4 secondsMiss distance divided by the speed of light.
- Width from brightness alone
- 4 to 9 mAstronomers estimate size from how bright an asteroid is (H 29.1) 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 321-day year.
- Known close approaches, 1900 to 2200
- 110 inside the Moon's orbit and 1 within ten lunar distances.
- Closest pass in that period
- 2.62 lunar distancesOn 9th July 2019.
- Next visit after this one
- 13th June 2033At 134.3 lunar distances. No closer than this time.
- Average gap between visits
- 3.0 yearsThe span of the record divided by the number of gaps between approaches.
- Rank by size
- 42 of 42Among every asteroid this site has tracked, biggest first.
- Rank by closeness
- 16 of 42Among every asteroid this site has tracked, using each one's most recent pass, closest first.
- Rank by speed
- 41 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 2019 NX5 hit Earth? Questions answered
Will asteroid 2019 NX5 hit Earth?
No. 2019 NX5 passes Earth on 18th November 2026 at 57.2 lunar distances (21,996,732 km), which is 57.2 times the distance to the Moon. It is not on NASA's potentially hazardous list. It is on NASA's Sentry watch list, which means "monitored for any future chance of impact", not "expected to hit".
How big is asteroid 2019 NX5?
NASA estimates it is between 4 m and 9 m wide, which at the top end is about 0.1 football pitches long. Nobody has seen it up close, so the width is an estimate from its brightness.
How fast is asteroid 2019 NX5 travelling?
3.5 km/s relative to Earth at closest approach, about 12,726 km/h (7,908 mph). That is 0.5 times the speed of the International Space Station.
Is 2019 NX5 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. 2019 NX5 has an absolute magnitude of 29.1 and its orbit comes within 0.002 AU of Earth's.
When is asteroid 2019 NX5's next close approach?
After this pass, the next one in NASA's record is on 18th November 2026, at 57.2 lunar distances.
Unhelpful facts
- 14.70% of the way to the Sun. Nobody is cancelling summer.
- Roughly 13 car tyres wide. Check the tread before you worry about the rock.
- As fast as 284 Usain Bolts at top speed, none of whom have been told.
- About 0.09 of a football pitch long. VAR would be unimpressed.
- A UK train would take 25.1 years to cross the same gap, plus delays "due to a train being late".
- If this one did hit Earth, your next meeting would be cancelled. Look on the bright side.
- Line up 1 elephants to match its width. The elephants would like to be consulted first.
- At this speed it covers the distance to the Moon in 30.2 hours. Your train replacement bus takes longer.
- It is moving 36 times faster than a sports car, and has never once paid a congestion charge.
- A snail would need 53,390 years to cover the gap. The snail would take the day off.
- Misses by 57.2 times the distance to the Moon. The Moon has not filed a complaint.
- It passes in 5 days, which is 35 dog days. Your dog is already nervous, mostly about the post.