{"id":802224,"date":"2026-05-16T07:00:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T12:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=802224"},"modified":"2026-05-16T07:00:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T12:00:28","slug":"asteroid-2026-jn4-impacts-earth-over-the-arafura-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=802224","title":{"rendered":"Asteroid 2026 JN4 impacts Earth over the Arafura Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Small asteroid 2026 JN4, previously known as ST26E86, entered Earth\u2019s atmosphere at 13:44 UTC on May 15 over the Arafura Sea region, south of Indonesian Papua and west of Papua New Guinea. The nominal CNEOS geocentric solution placed the object at 0.005 lunar distances (0.0000137 AU \/ about 2 045 km \/ 1 270 miles) from the center of our planet, inside Earth\u2019s mean radius of 6 370 km (3 960 miles).<\/p>\n

2026 JN4 is one of 76 known asteroids recorded within 1 LD of Earth in 2026 as of 10:40 UTC on May 16.<\/p>\n

The earliest available astrometry for this object was a Zwicky Transient Facility precovery observation from Palomar Mountain station I41 in California at 08:08 UTC on May 15 \u2014 about 5 hours and 36 minutes before impact. The Minor Planet Center (MPC) lists the initial reported observation by JPL SynTrack Robotic Telescope U68 in California at 10:21 UTC \u2014 about 3 hours and 23 minutes before impact.<\/p>\n

The Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) reported the close approach time at 13:44 with an uncertainty of \u00b16 minutes and a nominal relative velocity of 23 km\/s (14 mi\/s).<\/p>\n

Based on the CNEOS absolute magnitude of 33.1, 2026 JN4 is estimated to be between 0.63 m and 1.4 m (2.1 to 4.6 feet) in diameter.<\/p>\n

This is now the 12th<\/sup> predicted Earth impactor, the first since 2024 XA1 on December 3, 2024:<\/p>\n

Predicted Earth impactors<\/h2>\n

Updated at 11:20 UTC on May 16, 2026<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Object \/ Type<\/th>\nDiscovery date (UTC)<\/th>\nImpact date (UTC)<\/th>\nImpact location<\/th>\nDimensions (~)<\/th>\nEnergy released (kt)<\/th>\nNotes<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
2008 TC3 (Apollo)<\/td>\nOctober 6, 2008 at 06:39<\/td>\nOctober 7, 2008 at 02:46<\/td>\nNubian desert, Sudan<\/td>\n4 m (13.1 feet)<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n600 meteorites found. Total weight 11 kg.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2014 AA (Apollo)<\/td>\nJanuary 1, 2014 at 06:18<\/td>\nJanuary 2, 2014 at 03:06<\/td>\nAtlantic Ocean<\/td>\n3 m (9.8 feet)<\/td>\n0.5 – 0.1<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2018 LA (Apollo)<\/td>\nJune 2, 2018 at 08:22<\/td>\nJune 2, 2018 at 16:44<\/td>\nBotswana\/South Africa<\/td>\n3 m (9.8 feet)<\/td>\n0.4<\/td>\nAt least 24 meteorites found. Ejected by asteroid Vesta. Howardite-Eucrite-Diogenite (HED) type material<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2019 MO (Apollo)<\/td>\nJune 22, 2019 at 07:24<\/td>\nJune 22, 2019 at 21:25<\/td>\nPuerto Rico<\/td>\n5 m (16.4 feet)<\/td>\n6<\/td>\nPossibly Alinda asteroid. NEXRAD weather radar detected falling meteorites over water.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2022 EB5 (Apollo)<\/td>\nMarch 11, 2022 at 19:24<\/td>\nMarch 11, 2022 at 21:22<\/td>\nJan Mayen Island, Norway<\/td>\n1 m (6.4 feet)<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2022 WJ1 (Apollo)<\/td>\nNovember 19, 2022 at 04:53<\/td>\nNovember 19, 2022 at 08:27<\/td>\nOntario, Canada<\/td>\n1 m (3.2 feet)<\/td>\n–<\/td>\nMost meteorites fell in water.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2023 CX1 (Apollo)<\/td>\nFebruary 12, 2023 at 20:18<\/td>\nFebruary 13, 2023 at 02:59<\/td>\nNormandy, France<\/td>\n1 m (3.2 feet)<\/td>\n–<\/td>\nOver 22 meteorites.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2024 BX1 (Apollo)<\/td>\nJanuary 20, 2024 at 20:48<\/td>\nJanuary 21, 2024 at 00:33<\/td>\nBerlin, Germany<\/td>\n 0.7 – 1.6 m (2.23 – 5.2 feet) \/ ~140 kg<\/td>\n–<\/td>\nAbout 200 meteorites. Total weight 1.8 kg.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2024 RW1 (Apollo)<\/td>\nSeptember 4, 2024 at 05:43<\/td>\nSeptember 4, 2024 at 16:39<\/td>\nLuzon, Philippines<\/td>\n1.1 – 2.4 m (3.6 \u2013 7.9 feet)<\/td>\n0.2<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2024 UQ<\/td>\nOctober 22, 2024<\/td>\nOctober 22, 2024 at 10:54<\/td>\nEastern Pacific Ocean<\/td>\n1 m (3.2 feet)<\/td>\n0.15<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2024 XA1<\/td>\nDecember 3, 2024 at 05:55<\/td>\nDecember 3, 2024 at 16:15<\/td>\nSiberia, Russia<\/td>\n70 cm (2.3 feet)<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2026 JN4<\/td>\nMay 15, 2026 at 08:08<\/td>\nMay 15, 2026, at 13:44<\/td>\nArafura Sea region<\/td>\n0.65 – 1.4 m (2.1 – 4.5 feet)<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Small-Body Database logged 2026 JN4 as an Apollo-type near-Earth asteroid. Its orbit solution is based on 6 observations in about 3 hours and has a condition code of 9 on a scale from 0 to 9, where 9 indicates very high orbital uncertainty.<\/p>\n

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Asteroid 2026 JN4 orbit diagram. Credit: JPL\/SSD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The object was not classified as potentially hazardous due to its very small size. There are no reports of a ground impact, meteorite recovery, or observed fireball.<\/p>\n

References:<\/p>\n

1<\/sup> Asteroid 2026 JN4 \u2013 JPL\/SSD \u2013 Accessed May 16, 2026<\/p>\n

2<\/sup> Asteroid 2026 JN4 \u2013 IAU\/MPC \u2013 Accessed May 16, 2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Small asteroid 2026 JN4, previously known as ST26E86, entered Earth\u2019s atmosphere at 13:44 UTC on May 15 over the Arafura Sea region, south of Indonesian Papua and west of Papua… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":802225,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-802224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genaero"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=802224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/802225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=802224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=802224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=802224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}