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It sounds a bit dramatic, but don’t panic just yet. According to NASA’s Planetary Defence Program, five asteroids that fall into the “potentially hazardous” category have passed near Earth this week.

 

While none of them pose a genuine collision threat, their size and how close they came to us make them worth keeping an eye on, especially after the attention that 2024 YR4 received earlier this year in Spain and the rest of the world.

 

So what exactly does “potentially hazardous” mean? It’s not a doomsday term or one designed to incite alarm. It’s simply the label given to space objects that come within about 7.5 million kilometres of Earth and measure more than 140 metres across.

 

Smaller asteroids can also be flagged if there is any uncertainty about their future path, especially over longer periods.

 

Between May 26 and 28, five space rocks zipped by that tick at least one of those boxes. Even though all of them passed by at much greater distances than the Moon, which sits about 384,400 kilometres away from us, they still got NASA’s attention.

 

Among them was asteroid 2025 KT1, which passed on May 26 at nearly two million kilometres. The following day, 2025 JP made its approach at a distance of more than five million kilometres.

 

Then on May 28, three more, 2025 KW, 2025 JR and 2025 KU1, joined the line-up. Of those, 2025 JR stood out thanks to its impressive size, measuring close to 80 metres in diameter.

 

None of these objects crossed into what NASA would consider a genuine danger zone, but they are now on the agency’s watch list due to their size and speed. NASA keeps this list updated regularly through its Asteroid Watch program, which monitors any potential close approaches.

 

Should you be worried? Not really. These kinds of flybys happen fairly often and fall well within what scientists expect. Most of these asteroids were detected in plenty of time and space agencies around the world have early warning systems in place to track their paths and act if ever necessary.

 

In fact, events like this are more of a scientific opportunity than anything else. They give researchers a chance to observe these objects up close, refine their tracking methods and get a better understanding of how these celestial wanderers behave. So for now, it’s more fascinating than frightening.

 

 

Image: Pixabay