Asteroid (2026 RR51)
Closest pass on 2026-Oct-09 12:08 TDB (Julian Date: 2461323.005707535)
Key Facts
- On 2026-Oct-09 12:08, asteroid (2026 RR51) passed Earth at a nominal distance of 10,300,000 km (26.7 lunar distances).
- At closest approach, the object was traveling at 7.41 km/s relative to Earth.
- The object has an estimated size of 41.4 m, which is about 3 school buses.
- The miss distance was about 27 times the distance to the Moon.
- Hazard classification: 25 to 50 meters. Can produce a low-altitude airburst or surface crater capable of flattening forests over hundreds of square kilometers and devastating a metropolitan area, comparable to the 1908 Tunguska event.
Visual Scale Comparison
| Target | 41 m |
|---|---|
| Smaller | blue whale: 25 m |
| Larger | Boeing 747: 70.6 m |
Object size compared to known reference benchmarks.
Miss Distance Orbital Dial
Concentric orbital rings showing Earth, Moon orbit, and asteroid trajectory.
Astrometric & Orbital Parameters
| Designation | 2026 RR51 |
|---|---|
| Full Object Name | (2026 RR51) |
| Nominal Miss Distance | 10,300,000 km (26.7 lunar distances / 0.0686944178938878 au) |
| 3-Sigma Minimum Distance | 10,155,748.257 km (26.420 LD) |
| Relative Velocity (v_rel) | 7.40564809313225 km/s (about the speed of a ISS orbital velocity) |
| Velocity at Infinity (v_inf) | 7.40040869387719 km/s |
| Time Uncertainty (3-sigma) | 00:56 |
| Absolute Magnitude (H) | 24.665 mag |
| Orbit Solution ID | 1 (NASA JPL Small-Body Database) |
| Inside Moon Orbit | No |
| Inside Geostationary Ring | No |
Cite this page
Permanent URL: https://whatnearlyhitus.com/approaches/2026-Oct-09/2026-rr51/ | Machine-readable twin: index.json
APA:
What Nearly Hit Us Project. (2026). Asteroid (2026 RR51) Close Approach on 2026-Oct-09 12:08. What Nearly Hit Us. Retrieved from https://whatnearlyhitus.com/approaches/2026-Oct-09/2026-rr51/MLA:
"Asteroid (2026 RR51) Close Approach on 2026-Oct-09 12:08." What Nearly Hit Us, What Nearly Hit Us Project, 2026-09-24, https://whatnearlyhitus.com/approaches/2026-Oct-09/2026-rr51/.BibTeX:
@misc{approach_2026RR51_202609,
title = {Asteroid (2026 RR51) Close Approach on 2026-Oct-09 12:08},
author = {{What Nearly Hit Us Project}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://whatnearlyhitus.com/approaches/2026-Oct-09/2026-rr51/},
note = {Primary upstream source: NASA/JPL CNEOS CAD API}
}