PULSE POINTS
❓WHAT HAPPENED: NASA is tracking a house-sized asteroid, 2025 PR1, expected to pass Earth on August 16 at a speed of approximately 17,717 miles per hour.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and its Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).
📍WHEN & WHERE: The asteroid will make its closest approach on Saturday, August 16, at a distance of 609,000 miles from Earth.
🎯IMPACT: While the asteroid poses no immediate threat, its tracking highlights NASA’s ongoing efforts to monitor near-Earth objects.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is closely monitoring an asteroid designated 2025 PR1, which is expected to make a relatively close approach to Earth on August 16. Traveling at approximately 17,717 miles per hour, the asteroid is about 55 feet wide, roughly the size of a house, and will pass at a distance of 609,000 miles from our planet.
In addition to 2025 PR1, three more near-Earth asteroids are projected to pass by Earth in the coming week. On August 17, asteroid 2025 PM, comparable in size to an airplane, will come within 654,000 miles. Following that, on August 20, the stadium-sized asteroid 1997 QK1, measuring around 990 feet across, is expected to pass at a distance of 1,870,000 miles. That same day, another asteroid, 2025 OV4, about 160 feet wide, will make its closest approach at 1,800,000 miles.
NASA notes that small asteroids, up to about 30 feet across, typically enter Earth’s atmosphere roughly once per decade. These asteroids often produce bright fireballs and sonic booms but rarely cause serious damage.
Earlier this year, NASA identified a larger potential threat: asteroid 2024 YR4. Initially calculated to have a 3.1 percent chance of impacting Earth in 2032, the highest probability ever recorded for an object of its size, refined orbital projections now indicate it’s more likely to collide with the Moon in December 2032.
“Asteroid 2024 YR4 is now too far away to observe with either space or ground-based telescopes. NASA expects to make further observations when the asteroid’s orbit around the Sun brings it back into the vicinity of Earth in 2028,” NASA stated. Updated data also shows the probability of a Moon impact has slightly increased, from 3.8 percent to 4.3 percent. Even in the event of such a collision, NASA notes that it “would not alter its orbit.”
Meanwhile, scientists in South Korea have been analyzing the potential impact of asteroid Bennu, a much larger object, roughly 1,640 feet wide, with a one-in-2,700 chance of hitting Earth in September 2182. Their research suggests that such an impact could lead to catastrophic effects, including widespread wildfires, earthquakes, and atmospheric changes severe enough to cause significant global cooling and a reduction in photosynthesis for several years.
Image by Joe Loong.
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