Close Approach Record

Asteroid (2017 WJ2)

Closest pass on 2026-Nov-05 04:22 TDB (Julian Date: 2461349.682055145)

Key Facts

  • On 2026-Nov-05 04:22, asteroid (2017 WJ2) passed Earth at a nominal distance of 5,980,000 km (15.6 lunar distances).
  • At closest approach, the object was traveling at 11.8 km/s relative to Earth.
  • The object has an estimated size of 118 m, which is just under 10 school buses.
  • The miss distance was about 16 times the distance to the Moon.
  • Hazard classification: 50 to 140 meters. Reaches Earth surface to carve a crater over a kilometer wide (like Meteor Crater, Arizona), destroying infrastructure across an entire metropolitan region and generating damaging regional seismic waves.

Visual Scale Comparison

football pitch 105 m Asteroid 2017 WJ2 just under 10 school buses ~118 m Great Pyramid 138 m
Scale ladder data
Target118 m
Smallerfootball pitch: 105 m
LargerGreat Pyramid: 138 m

Object size compared to known reference benchmarks.

Miss Distance Orbital Dial

Moon Orbit (1 LD = 384,400 km) 15.6 LD Earth

Concentric orbital rings showing Earth, Moon orbit, and asteroid trajectory.

Astrometric & Orbital Parameters

Designation2017 WJ2
Full Object Name(2017 WJ2)
Nominal Miss Distance5,980,000 km (15.6 lunar distances / 0.0399993405263048 au)
3-Sigma Minimum Distance5,714,070.433 km (14.865 LD)
Relative Velocity (v_rel)11.7785663610289 km/s (about one and a half ISS orbital speeds)
Velocity at Infinity (v_inf)11.7729095536226 km/s
Time Uncertainty (3-sigma)04:43
Absolute Magnitude (H)22.4 mag
Orbit Solution ID5 (NASA JPL Small-Body Database)
Inside Moon OrbitNo
Inside Geostationary RingNo

Cite this page

Permanent URL: https://whatnearlyhitus.com/approaches/2026-Nov-05/2017-wj2/ | Machine-readable twin: index.json

APA:
What Nearly Hit Us Project. (2026). Asteroid (2017 WJ2) Close Approach on 2026-Nov-05 04:22. What Nearly Hit Us. Retrieved from https://whatnearlyhitus.com/approaches/2026-Nov-05/2017-wj2/
MLA:
"Asteroid (2017 WJ2) Close Approach on 2026-Nov-05 04:22." What Nearly Hit Us, What Nearly Hit Us Project, 2026-09-24, https://whatnearlyhitus.com/approaches/2026-Nov-05/2017-wj2/.
BibTeX:
@misc{approach_2017WJ2_202605,
  title = {Asteroid (2017 WJ2) Close Approach on 2026-Nov-05 04:22},
  author = {{What Nearly Hit Us Project}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://whatnearlyhitus.com/approaches/2026-Nov-05/2017-wj2/},
  note = {Primary upstream source: NASA/JPL CNEOS CAD API}
}