Asteroid 2025 FA22 will safely fly by Earth today, September 18, 2025, at a minimum distance of about 835,000 kilometers, just over twice the distance to the Moon. The closest approach is around 7 AM UTC, and the object will be traveling at about 38,600 kilometers per hour. Forbes reported that, at that range, it will be the largest object to pass within one million kilometers of Earth in 2025.
The asteroid, nicknamed 2025 FA22, measures about 290 meters in length and 166 meters in width and is large enough to wipe out a major city if it collided with Earth, reported El Universo. It is classified as a potentially hazardous object; NASA classifies as potentially hazardous all objects over 150 meters in diameter that pass within 4.6 million miles of Earth. Specialists considered the chances of a collision essentially zero.
“While this is an absolutely safe approach, it is still remarkable: a similarly close encounter, involving an object of that size coming that close, happens on average one time every 10 years,” said Gianluca Masi at the Virtual Telescope Project. “This event offers a rare opportunity to observe a large near-Earth object safely while highlighting the importance of monitoring potentially hazardous asteroids,” Masi added.
The Virtual Telescope Project is hosting an online observation, streaming live images from robotic telescopes in Manciano, Tuscany, Italy, with commentary by astrophysicist Masi. People can also find 2025 FA22 in the night sky using TheSkyLive.com, which shows in real time the positions of asteroids and comets.
Astronomers estimated that 2025 FA22 would reach a maximum brightness of magnitude 13.2, making it visible with good amateur telescopes under sufficiently dark skies. The flyby coincides with a crescent Moon above Venus, with Regulus in Leo nearby.
2025 FA22 was discovered on March 29, 2025, by the Pan-STARRS 2 telescope in Hawaii. The asteroid briefly moved to the top of the ESA Risk List but was removed in May 2025 after additional observations refined its orbit. “However, high-priority follow-up observations soon allowed astronomers to refine the asteroid’s trajectory and rule out any impact risk,” ESA said. Researchers planned to observe 2025 FA22 from observatories across the globe, and teams including NASA’s Goldstone radar in Barstow, California, will monitor the asteroid to determine its dimensions and shape.
The International Asteroid Warning Network is conducting a simulation of a possible impact by 2025 FA22 in 2089 to test emergency procedures and techniques for measuring key properties of such objects. The 2025 FA22 IAWN Campaign will involve measuring as many of the asteroid’s characteristics as accurately as possible as part of a preparedness exercise, which is essential for developing planetary defense strategies. “While 2025 FA22 poses no danger, it is important to practice our ability to measure these properties, as they influence how an asteroid will react to any attempt to divert it from its collision course with Earth,” ESA representatives stated. According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2025 FA22 will not come dangerously close even in 2089, passing about six million kilometers from Earth, more than seven times today’s distance.
Astronomers said 2025 FA22 periodically flies near Earth. It belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids and completes one orbit around the Sun in 676 Earth days, approaching to about 132 million kilometers and receding to about 319 million kilometers. Another close approach will occur in 2173, when it will pass around 200,000 miles (320,000 kilometers) from Earth, closer than the Moon.
Written with the help of a news-analysis system.