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2026 HZ4 is the 62nd<\/sup> known asteroid to pass within 1 lunar distance of Earth since the start of the year and the second closest so far, after 2026 EM on March 7 at 0.077 LD.<\/p>\n The object was initially reported by Catalina Sky Survey on April 24, but the earliest listed observation in the MPC data was made by Palomar Mountain\u2013ZTF at 08:09 UTC on April 23, about 28 hours before closest approach.<\/p>\n 2024 HZ4 belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids, a class of near-Earth objects whose orbits cross Earth\u2019s path, and has an estimated diameter between 3 and 6.7 m (9.8-22 feet). CNEOS lists the asteroid\u2019s absolute magnitude at 29.7.<\/p>\n Its flyby took place at a relative velocity of 13.27 km\/s at 12:13 UTC on April 24. 2026 HZ4\u2019s closest approach was about 23 338 km (14 501 miles) above Earth\u2019s surface \u2014 well inside geostationary orbit, which lies about 35 780 km (22 230 miles) above Earth\u2019s equator.<\/p>\n The current JPL orbit solution is based on just 14 observations over a 1-day data arc, with a condition code of 8. MPC also lists the orbit uncertainty as 8.<\/p>\n Based on JPL orbital elements for epoch April 24, 2026, HZ4 has a semimajor axis of 2.0047 AU, eccentricity of 0.5259, inclination of 13.44\u00b0, perihelion distance of 0.9505 AU, and aphelion distance of 3.0589 AU. Its orbital period is about 2.84 years.<\/p>\n References:<\/p>\n