Asteroid (2026 KO)
Closest pass on 2026-Oct-28 19:31 TDB (Julian Date: 2461342.313376271)
Key Facts
- On 2026-Oct-28 19:31, asteroid (2026 KO) passed Earth at a nominal distance of 8,140,000 km (21.2 lunar distances).
- At closest approach, the object was traveling at 7.73 km/s relative to Earth.
- The object has an estimated size of 71.9 m, which is just under 6 school buses.
- The miss distance was just over 21 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
| Target | 72 m |
|---|---|
| Smaller | Boeing 747: 70.6 m |
| Larger | Statue of Liberty: 93 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 KO |
|---|---|
| Full Object Name | (2026 KO) |
| Nominal Miss Distance | 8,140,000 km (21.2 lunar distances / 0.054405695903642 au) |
| 3-Sigma Minimum Distance | 8,124,181.129 km (21.135 LD) |
| Relative Velocity (v_rel) | 7.73144588807843 km/s (about the speed of a ISS orbital velocity) |
| Velocity at Infinity (v_inf) | 7.72510886503902 km/s |
| Time Uncertainty (3-sigma) | 00:38 |
| Absolute Magnitude (H) | 23.47 mag |
| Orbit Solution ID | 9 (NASA JPL Small-Body Database) |
| Inside Moon Orbit | No |
| Inside Geostationary Ring | No |
Cite this page
Permanent URL: https://whatnearlyhitus.com/approaches/2026-Oct-28/2026-ko/ | Machine-readable twin: index.json
APA:
What Nearly Hit Us Project. (2026). Asteroid (2026 KO) Close Approach on 2026-Oct-28 19:31. What Nearly Hit Us. Retrieved from https://whatnearlyhitus.com/approaches/2026-Oct-28/2026-ko/MLA:
"Asteroid (2026 KO) Close Approach on 2026-Oct-28 19:31." What Nearly Hit Us, What Nearly Hit Us Project, 2026-09-24, https://whatnearlyhitus.com/approaches/2026-Oct-28/2026-ko/.BibTeX:
@misc{approach_2026KO_202628,
title = {Asteroid (2026 KO) Close Approach on 2026-Oct-28 19:31},
author = {{What Nearly Hit Us Project}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://whatnearlyhitus.com/approaches/2026-Oct-28/2026-ko/},
note = {Primary upstream source: NASA/JPL CNEOS CAD API}
}