At a glance
- Width
- 22 to 49 m
- about 178 bananas
- Speed
- 14.65 km/s
- 52,750 km/h · 32,777 mph
- Misses us by
- 110.1 lunar
- 42,353,916 km · 26,317,495 miles
- First spotted by us
- 13th November 2026
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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
- 1.39 Earth years (508 days)One lap of the Sun. Your commute is shorter, and so is your patience.
- Eccentricity
- 0.188How squashed the orbit is. 0 is a perfect circle, 1 is "leaving". This one is nearly circular and well behaved.
- Tilt
- 19.5°The angle of its orbit against the flat plane the planets share. Slightly tipsy.
- Closest to the Sun
- 1.01 AU151 million km. One AU is the distance from Earth to the Sun.
- Furthest from the Sun
- 1.48 AU222 million km. Never leaves the inner solar system.
- Closest orbit-to-orbit gap
- 0.044 AUIf you only compare the two orbits, not where the planets are, they come within 17 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
- 3 days2019-11-26 to 2019-11-29. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 23rd May 1906 | 166.4 LD · 63,985,060 km | 11.0 km/s |
| 9th December 1909 | 119.3 LD · 45,875,291 km | 12.5 km/s |
| 7th June 1913 | 182.8 LD · 70,288,877 km | 11.1 km/s |
| 30th November 1916 | 18.9 LD · 7,254,268 km | 10.7 km/s |
| 26th May 2009 | 169.3 LD · 65,103,317 km | 11.1 km/s |
| 7th December 2012 | 103.6 LD · 39,841,427 km | 11.9 km/s |
| 9th June 2016 | 185.6 LD · 71,367,517 km | 11.1 km/s |
| 30th November 2019 | 17.0 LD · 6,532,616 km | 10.8 km/s |
| 19th November 2026 (this one) | 110.1 LD · 42,353,916 km | 14.7 km/s |
| 21st April 2027 | 147.5 LD · 56,743,165 km | 9.7 km/s |
By the numbers
- Estimated mass
- 16,974 tonnes to 189,775 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
- 10 Olympic poolsSphere volume at the middle width estimate, divided by 2,500 cubic metres per Olympic pool.
- Impact energy, if it hit
- 436 kilotons to 4.9 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
- 1.3 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
- 0.49 timesDivided by Earth's own orbital speed of 29.78 km/s around the Sun.
- Time to cross the UK
- 66.2 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
- 33.5 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
- 141.3 secondsMiss distance divided by the speed of light.
- Width from brightness alone
- 22 to 49 mAstronomers estimate size from how bright an asteroid is (H 25.4) 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
- 0.03 days of observation divided by its 508-day year.
- Known close approaches, 1900 to 2200
- 100 inside the Moon's orbit and 0 within ten lunar distances.
- Closest pass in that period
- 16.99 lunar distancesOn 30th November 2019.
- Next visit after this one
- 21st April 2027At 147.5 lunar distances. No closer than this time.
- Average gap between visits
- 13.4 yearsThe span of the record divided by the number of gaps between approaches.
- Rank by size
- 33 of 42Among every asteroid this site has tracked, biggest first.
- Rank by closeness
- 24 of 42Among every asteroid this site has tracked, using each one's most recent pass, closest first.
- Rank by speed
- 23 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 WL3 hit Earth? Questions answered
Will asteroid 2019 WL3 hit Earth?
No. 2019 WL3 passes Earth on 19th November 2026 at 110.1 lunar distances (42,353,916 km), which is 110.1 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 2019 WL3?
NASA estimates it is between 22 m and 49 m wide, which at the top end is about 0.5 football pitches long. Nobody has seen it up close, so the width is an estimate from its brightness.
How fast is asteroid 2019 WL3 travelling?
14.7 km/s relative to Earth at closest approach, about 52,750 km/h (32,777 mph). That is 1.9 times the speed of the International Space Station.
Is 2019 WL3 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 WL3 has an absolute magnitude of 25.4 and its orbit comes within 0.044 AU of Earth's.
When is asteroid 2019 WL3's next close approach?
After this pass, the next one in NASA's record is on 19th November 2026, at 110.1 lunar distances.
Unhelpful facts
- If this one did hit Earth, your next meeting would be cancelled. Look on the bright side.
- Misses by 110.1 times the distance to the Moon. The Moon has not filed a complaint.
- It could overtake 58 commercial jets, and it would not even signal.
- 0.13 Empire State Buildings tall, if you insist on laying New York on its side.
- About 141 wheels of Gouda across. A brave scientist would call that a dairy event.
- As fast as 1,179 Usain Bolts at top speed, none of whom have been told.
- That is 1,092 times the speed limit on a 30 zone. Nobody has fined it yet.
- At this speed it covers the distance to the Moon in 7.3 hours. Your train replacement bus takes longer.
- About 0.47 of a football pitch long. VAR would be unimpressed.
- It passes in 6 days, which is 42 dog days. Your dog is already nervous, mostly about the post.
- 139 large pizzas wide. Delivery in thirty minutes or it is free (it will not be free).
- Absolute magnitude of 25.4. Lower means brighter, so the biggest numbers belong to the smallest rocks. Astronomers did that on purpose.