Read more: Visit website Two bus-sized asteroids will zip past Earth closely but safely this week, starting with a 7-meter-long (22-feet) space rock named 2024 JF that's expected to pass by on Monday (May 6) evening.
Astronomers expect 2024 JF to make its closest approach at 8:04 p.m. ET tonight (1204 GMT on Tuesday). It will be followed by the 10-meter-long (32-feet) asteroid named 2024 JR1, which is expected to make its closest approach on Tuesday (May 7).
The first space rock will be about 295,000 miles (475,000 kilometers) from our planet at its closest approach, according to estimates from Asteroid Watch , a dashboard by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory of near-Earth asteroids and comets . It tracks objects whose orbits bring them within 4.6 million miles (7.5 million kilometers) of Earth, or nearly 20 times the distance to the moon .
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Sharmila Kuthunur is a Seattle-based science journalist covering astronomy, astrophysics and space exploration. Follow her on X @skuthunur.
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