At a glance
- Width
- 45 to 101 m
- about 366 bananas
- Speed
- 18.39 km/s
- 66,220 km/h · 41,147 mph
- Misses us by
- 100.0 lunar
- 38,443,082 km · 23,887,416 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
- 1.01 Earth years (368 days)One lap of the Sun. Your commute is shorter, and so is your patience.
- Eccentricity
- 0.326How squashed the orbit is. 0 is a perfect circle, 1 is "leaving". Noticeably oval. Mildly dramatic.
- Tilt
- 4.4°The angle of its orbit against the flat plane the planets share. Basically flat, so it shares our neighbourhood.
- Closest to the Sun
- 0.68 AU101 million km. One AU is the distance from Earth to the Sun.
- Furthest from the Sun
- 1.33 AU199 million km. Never leaves the inner solar system.
- Closest orbit-to-orbit gap
- 0.004 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
- 137NASA has measured this one 137 times. It has been stalked thoroughly.
- Watched for
- 23.7 years2000-04-04 to 2023-12-08. Long enough to know it well.
- Orbit uncertainty
- 0 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 8th June 2004 | 115.6 LD · 44,453,343 km | 10.1 km/s |
| 15th February 2005 | 126.0 LD · 48,440,010 km | 8.4 km/s |
| 18th June 2005 | 122.4 LD · 47,083,367 km | 11.0 km/s |
| 9th February 2006 | 132.1 LD · 50,812,122 km | 8.7 km/s |
| 27th June 2006 | 127.5 LD · 49,027,549 km | 11.6 km/s |
| 3rd February 2007 | 136.5 LD · 52,500,909 km | 8.9 km/s |
| 5th July 2007 | 131.0 LD · 50,372,272 km | 12.1 km/s |
| 28th January 2008 | 139.2 LD · 53,528,664 km | 9.1 km/s |
| 13th July 2008 | 133.1 LD · 51,174,501 km | 12.4 km/s |
| 21st January 2009 | 140.4 LD · 53,981,279 km | 9.2 km/s |
By the numbers
- Estimated mass
- 146,482 tonnes to 1.6 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
- 83 Olympic poolsSphere volume at the middle width estimate, divided by 2,500 cubic metres per Olympic pool.
- Impact energy, if it hit
- 5.9 megatons to 66 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
- 1.6 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
- 0.62 timesDivided by Earth's own orbital speed of 29.78 km/s around the Sun.
- Time to cross the UK
- 52.7 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
- 24.2 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
- 128.2 secondsMiss distance divided by the speed of light.
- Width from brightness alone
- 45 to 101 mAstronomers estimate size from how bright an asteroid is (H 23.8) 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
- 23.58,648 days of observation divided by its 368-day year.
- Known close approaches, 1900 to 2200
- 1420 inside the Moon's orbit and 3 within ten lunar distances.
- Closest pass in that period
- 1.49 lunar distancesOn 9th November 2021.
- Next visit after this one
- 21st November 2027At 122.2 lunar distances. No closer than this time.
- Average gap between visits
- 2.1 yearsThe span of the record divided by the number of gaps between approaches.
- Rank by size
- 25 of 42Among every asteroid this site has tracked, biggest first.
- Rank by closeness
- 23 of 42Among every asteroid this site has tracked, using each one's most recent pass, closest first.
- Rank by speed
- 9 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 XS hit Earth? Questions answered
Will asteroid 2019 XS hit Earth?
No. 2019 XS passes Earth on 19th November 2026 at 100.0 lunar distances (38,443,082 km), which is 100.0 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 XS?
NASA estimates it is between 45 m and 101 m wide, which at the top end is about 1.0 football pitches long. Nobody has seen it up close, so the width is an estimate from its brightness.
How fast is asteroid 2019 XS travelling?
18.4 km/s relative to Earth at closest approach, about 66,220 km/h (41,147 mph). That is 2.4 times the speed of the International Space Station.
Is 2019 XS 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 XS has an absolute magnitude of 23.8 and its orbit comes within 0.004 AU of Earth's.
When is asteroid 2019 XS's next close approach?
After this pass, the next one in NASA's record is on 19th November 2026, at 100.0 lunar distances.
Unhelpful facts
- Light crosses the gap in 128.23 seconds. That is not enough time to say "what was that".
- Roughly 156 car tyres wide. Check the tread before you worry about the rock.
- A snail would need 93,308 years to cover the gap. The snail would take the day off.
- It is moving 189 times faster than a sports car, and has never once paid a congestion charge.
- About 289 wheels of Gouda across. A brave scientist would call that a dairy event.
- Line up 16 elephants to match its width. The elephants would like to be consulted first.
- 285 large pizzas wide. Delivery in thirty minutes or it is free (it will not be free).
- At this speed it covers the distance to the Moon in 5.8 hours. Your train replacement bus takes longer.
- Misses by 100.0 times the distance to the Moon. The Moon has not filed a complaint.
- A jet would have to circle Earth 959 times to cover the gap. Baggage still lost.
- In the 24.2 days it takes to fly a gap that size, you could drink 1,741 cups of tea. Most would go cold.
- It passes in 6 days, which is 42 dog days. Your dog is already nervous, mostly about the post.