Asteroid 2026 KU1 flew past Earth at a distance of 0.149 lunar distances (about 0.00038 AU / 57 300 km / 35 600 miles) from the center of our planet at 22:11 UTC on May 22, 2026, becoming the 9th closest known asteroid flyby within 1 lunar distance recorded so far this year. Its closest point was about 50 900 km (31 600 miles) above Earth’s surface.
2026 KU1 is one of 84 known asteroids to pass within 1 LD of Earth in 2026. Based on nominal LD distance, it is the closest known asteroid flyby within 1 LD recorded since 2026 ET3 passed at 0.137 LD on March 15.
The object was first observed at the University of Arizona Mt. Lemmon Survey in Arizona at 06:36 UTC on May 22 — about 15 hours and 35 minutes before closest approach.
It belongs to the Apollo group of near-Earth objects and has an estimated diameter between 1.6 and 3.6 m (5.2–12 feet).
The current Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) orbit solution is based on 23 observations over a 1-day data arc and has a condition code of 6 on a scale from 0 to 9, where 0 indicates a well-determined orbit.
2026 KU1 has a semimajor axis of 1.3875 AU, a perihelion distance of 0.9141 AU, an aphelion distance of 1.8609 AU, an eccentricity of about 0.341, and an inclination of about 1.79 degrees.
References:
1 Asteroid 2026 KU1 – JPL/SSD – Accessed May 25, 2026
2 Asteroid 2026 KU1 – IAU/MPC – Accessed May 25, 2026