Asteroid 2026 JH2 Is About to Fly Right Past Earth—Relatively Speaking

小行星 2026 JH2 即将与地球“擦肩而过”——相对而言

Look up! Asteroid 2026 JH2 is now approaching Earth; the object, which is about 20 meters (66 feet) in diameter—comparable to Chicago’s Cloud Gate sculpture—will pass by on May 18. Enthusiasts will be able to observe it using a telescope or during a live broadcast organized by Virtual Telescope.

抬头看！小行星 2026 JH2 目前正在接近地球。该天体直径约为 20 米（66 英尺），与芝加哥的“云门”（Cloud Gate）雕塑大小相当，将于 5 月 18 日经过地球。天文爱好者可以通过望远镜观测，或观看由“虚拟望远镜”（Virtual Telescope）项目组织的直播。

The object will pass at a minimum distance from Earth of about 57,000 miles—much closer than the moon, which is about four times farther away. Among the tracked near-earth objects, or NEOs, that will pass near the planet over the next few months, it will come the closest.

该天体与地球的最近距离约为 57,000 英里，比月球近得多（月球距离地球约是这个距离的四倍）。在未来几个月内将经过地球附近的所有近地天体（NEO）中，它将是距离最近的一个。

There are tens of thousands of NEOs, which are generally of no particular concern; they are, of course, monitored, and some do have a (small) risk of impacting Earth in the next few years. According to New Scientist, 2026 JH2 is not among them, despite the widespread use of hyperbolic terms like “grazing” to describe how near it will come.

目前有数以万计的近地天体，它们通常不会引起特别的担忧。当然，它们都在受到监测，其中一些确实在未来几年内存在（极小的）撞击地球的风险。据《新科学家》（New Scientist）报道，2026 JH2 并不在这些高风险名单之列，尽管媒体广泛使用“擦过”（grazing）等夸张词汇来描述它与地球的近距离接触。

An Apollo-Type NEO

阿波罗型近地天体

Asteroid 2026 JH2 is technically an Apollo-type NEO, according to a classification system that takes into consideration the characteristics of the object’s orbit. An Apollo-type object has a semi-major axis larger than Earth’s (and therefore greater than one astronomical unit, the distance that separates us from the sun), and a perihelion (the shortest distance from the sun) of less than 1.017 astronomical units. (All asteroids and comets with a perihelion of less than 1.3 astronomical units are considered NEOs.)

根据考虑天体轨道特征的分类系统，小行星 2026 JH2 在技术上属于阿波罗型近地天体。阿波罗型天体的半长轴大于地球（因此大于一个天文单位，即地球与太阳之间的距离），且近日点（距离太阳最近的距离）小于 1.017 个天文单位。（所有近日点小于 1.3 个天文单位的小行星和彗星都被视为近地天体。）

Its passage, while noteworthy, is not rare; in fact, in the past year, many objects have come as close if not closer. Noteworthy among these was, for example, the passage of the small asteroid 2025 TF about 260 miles from Earth’s surface.

虽然这次经过值得关注，但这并不罕见；事实上，在过去的一年里，许多天体经过的距离与此相当，甚至更近。其中值得一提的是小行星 2025 TF，它曾经过距离地球表面约 260 英里的地方。

This story originally appeared on WIRED Italia and has been translated from Italian.

本文最初发表于《连线》意大利版（WIRED Italia），由意大利语翻译而来。