Asteroid (2026 RK1)
Closest pass on 2026-Sep-25 01:20 TDB (Julian Date: 2461308.555660171)
Key Facts
- On 2026-Sep-25 01:20, asteroid (2026 RK1) passed Earth at a nominal distance of 8,370,000 km (21.8 lunar distances).
- At closest approach, the object was traveling at 10.2 km/s relative to Earth.
- The object has an estimated size of 54.2 m, which is about 5 school buses.
- The miss distance was just under 22 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 | 54 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 RK1 |
|---|---|
| Full Object Name | (2026 RK1) |
| Nominal Miss Distance | 8,370,000 km (21.8 lunar distances / 0.0559602613398091 au) |
| 3-Sigma Minimum Distance | 8,298,382.989 km (21.588 LD) |
| Relative Velocity (v_rel) | 10.2351280664564 km/s (about 11 rifle bullets) |
| Velocity at Infinity (v_inf) | 10.2304750126829 km/s |
| Time Uncertainty (3-sigma) | 00:24 |
| Absolute Magnitude (H) | 24.082 mag |
| Orbit Solution ID | 2 (NASA JPL Small-Body Database) |
| Inside Moon Orbit | No |
| Inside Geostationary Ring | No |
Cite this page
Permanent URL: https://whatnearlyhitus.com/approaches/2026-Sep-25/2026-rk1/ | Machine-readable twin: index.json
APA:
What Nearly Hit Us Project. (2026). Asteroid (2026 RK1) Close Approach on 2026-Sep-25 01:20. What Nearly Hit Us. Retrieved from https://whatnearlyhitus.com/approaches/2026-Sep-25/2026-rk1/MLA:
"Asteroid (2026 RK1) Close Approach on 2026-Sep-25 01:20." What Nearly Hit Us, What Nearly Hit Us Project, 2026-09-24, https://whatnearlyhitus.com/approaches/2026-Sep-25/2026-rk1/.BibTeX:
@misc{approach_2026RK1_202625,
title = {Asteroid (2026 RK1) Close Approach on 2026-Sep-25 01:20},
author = {{What Nearly Hit Us Project}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://whatnearlyhitus.com/approaches/2026-Sep-25/2026-rk1/},
note = {Primary upstream source: NASA/JPL CNEOS CAD API}
}