\n<\/p>\n
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<\/sup> 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\u2019s surface.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n 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.<\/p>\n The object was first observed at the University of Arizona Mt. Lemmon Survey in Arizona at 06:36 UTC on May 22 \u2014 about 15 hours and 35 minutes before closest approach.<\/p>\n It belongs to the Apollo group of near-Earth objects and has an estimated diameter between 1.6 and 3.6 m (5.2\u201312 feet).<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n References:<\/p>\n