A small asteroid made an extremely close pass by Earth last week, slipping by almost unnoticed. Named 2025 TF, the object zoomed over Antarctica on October 1 at around 8:47 PM ET, coming within roughly 265 miles, or 428 kilometers, of the planet’s surface. That is lower than most operational satellites and nearly in the same orbital region as the International Space Station, according to a report from Live Science.
The European Space Agency later confirmed the near miss, explaining that the asteroid was far too small to pose any threat. Measuring between 3.2 and 9.8 feet in diameter—roughly the size of a household refrigerator or compact car—it would have disintegrated into a bright fireball had it entered the atmosphere.
Research by Aerospace Security notes that most satellites orbit between 100 and 1,242 miles above the Earth, meaning 2025 TF passed well below this range.
Astronomers did not detect the asteroid before it flew past. It was spotted only a few hours later, when data from the Catalina Sky Survey, a NASA-backed program that monitors near-Earth objects, revealed its path. The European Space Agency’s Planetary Defence Office then confirmed the flyby and determined its trajectory with remarkable precision.
“Tracking down a metre-scale object in the vast darkness of space at a time when its location is still uncertain is an impressive feat. This observation helped astronomers determine the close approach distance and time given above to such high precision,” the ESA said in a statement.
The agency’s calculations suggest that 2025 TF will not return near Earth until April 2087.
Interestingly, just one day later, another small asteroid named 2025 TQ2 passed by the planet. This one travelled over Canada on October 2, coming within about 3,014 miles, according to EarthSky.org and the Minor Planet Center.
NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies reports that thousands of asteroids pass close to Earth every year, though only those measuring at least 500 feet across and coming within 4.65 million miles are classified as “Potentially Hazardous Asteroids.”
Between September 23 and 28, ten smaller asteroids also crossed within the Moon’s orbital distance of Earth, none of which were large enough to cause any damage.
