The space rock is hurtling through our cosmic backyard at a speed of some 11,453 miles per hour, according to the space agency.
rock—known as"2026 FM3"— is about 15 feet across and is set to make its closest approach to Earth tomorrow at a cosmically slight distance of just 148,000 miles, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory .
2026 FM3 is not the only asteroid that will be in the vicinity of our planet this week. NASA is also tracking a plane-sized asteroid known as 2026 FX3, which is around 68 feet in diameter and will approachTwo more , bus-sized 2026 FQ2 and plane-sized 2026 FG3, are due to make their closest approach at around 1,500,000 and 1,930,000 miles from the Earth respectively.According to NASA, small asteroids measuring up to 30 feet across, impact the Earth roughly once every ten years, but they usually pose no hazard to life on Earth. These collisions usually result in a bright and a powerful sonic boom and may occasionally break a window, though they generally do not cause any significant damage. However, depending on the asteroid's size, its impact can pose different levels of threat to our planet. In February 2025, an asteroid estimated to be between 174 and 220 feet in size—"2024 YR4"—was calculated to have a 3.1 percent chance of striking Earth in 2032, which was described as"the highest impact probability NASA has ever recorded for an object of this size or larger." Asteroid measuring 160 feet and over, only impact Earth about in 1,000 years, with the potential of causing local devastation and creating an impact crater. Thankfully, updated calculations indicate that an Earth impact is very unlikely, and some scientists now suggest that 2024 YR4 may instead be on its path to possibly collide with the Moon in December 2032. "Asteroid 2024 YR4 is now too far away to observe with either space or ground-based telescopes. NASA expects to make further observations when the asteroid's orbit around the Sun brings it back into the vicinity of Earth in 2028," NASA said on their website. Asteroids that could cause global devastation are those measuring over 3,000 feet, which statistically hit the Earth about every 700,000 years. An impact of this sort could possibly cause the collapse of our civilization. Then there are space rocks that are over 6 miles across, which only impact our planet once every 100 million years, but are likely to cause mass extinctions of life, according to NASA. Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about asteroids? Let us know via
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