On April 27, 2026, two separate meteriods are passing by our planet — both roughly the size of a commercial aircraft, tracked by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory through its Asteroid Watch dashboard.
The first, designated 2026 HJ3, is approximately 81 feet (about 25 metres) wide and will come within 3.86 million miles of Earth. The second, 2026 HR, is slightly larger at 68 feet (about 21 metres) and will pass at roughly 3.95 million miles from Earth.
To put that distance in perspective: the Moon is about 239,000 miles away. These objects are passing at roughly 16 to 17 times the distance to the Moon. That is close enough to monitor carefully. Not close enough to lose sleep over.
A day earlier, on April 26, a third object — 2026 HP2, about 92 feet wide — had already made its closest approach at 3.16 million miles.
Three airplane-sized rocks in two days. Coincidence, not catastrophe.
Who Is Tracking These and How
NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), operating out of JPL in Pasadena, California, maintains the Asteroid Watch dashboard. This tool tracks every object that will come within 4.6 million miles of Earth — a boundary space scientists call the "close approach" zone.
Objects larger than about 150 metres that enter this zone are classified as "potentially hazardous." These current flyby asteroids — all under 110 feet — fall well below that threshold. They are the kind of rocks that, if they somehow entered Earth's atmosphere, would likely break apart or produce a localized blast effect — alarming, but not extinction-level or even city-threatening.
The tracking chain involves global telescope networks, radar systems at NASA's Goldstone facility in California, and increasingly the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile, which came online recently and has already identified thousands of previously unknown near-Earth objects in its initial dataset.
The Bigger Context: We Are Getting Better at Finding These
Here is what matters more than these specific flybys: humanity is discovering near-Earth asteroids at a rapidly accelerating rate. There are now over 41,000 known near-Earth asteroids. A large proportion of them have been found in the last decade as detection technology has improved.
A study published in the Astrophysical Journal in March 2026 added another layer to this picture. Researcher Patrick Shober, writing for NASA, identified a newly formed meteor cluster — 282 meteors — that appears to be the debris trail of an asteroid crumbling under intense solar heat. The parent asteroid has not been definitively found yet, but the existence of the debris stream proves there are still significant space rocks we have not pinpointed.
NASA's NEO Surveyor mission, scheduled to launch in 2027, is designed specifically to hunt for dark, sun-approaching asteroids that current ground-based telescopes miss. It will operate from space, where sunlight won't blind it the way it does Earth-based instruments.
Also Read: Mission MITRA: Why ISRO’s new Ladakh experiment matters far beyond one space mission
What 'Airplane-Sized' Actually Means
The media shorthand of "airplane-sized" can be misleading. A standard commercial airplane — say, a Boeing 737 — is about 120 feet long. These objects range from 68 to 92 feet, so they are somewhat smaller than a jumbo jet, not larger.
For reference, the Chelyabinsk meteor that exploded over Russia in 2013 was about 65 feet wide. That airburst shattered windows across a wide area and injured over 1,500 people, mostly from broken glass. No one was killed, but it was a reminder of what even a relatively modest object can do when it actually enters the atmosphere at high speed.
The objects tracked by NASA today are passing at comfortable distances and pose no impact risk. But Chelyabinsk is always worth remembering when these flybys are reported, because that one came without advance warning — discovered by astronomers only after it was already over Russia.
India's Stake in Planetary Defence
India is not a passive observer in this space. ISRO has been developing its own near-Earth object monitoring capacity, and Indian academic institutions have collaborated on global meteor observation networks. In 2025, India announced plans to participate in international planetary defence exercises alongside NASA and ESA.
For a country of 1.4 billion people, improving early-warning systems for asteroid approaches — even small ones — has practical value. A Chelyabinsk-type event over a densely populated Indian city would be a different kind of disaster than the one in Siberia.
Summary: Today's Flybys
| Object | Size | Closest Approach | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 HJ3 | ~81 feet | 3.86 million miles | April 27 |
| 2026 HR | ~68 feet | 3.95 million miles | April 27 |
| 2026 HP2 | ~92 feet | 3.16 million miles | April 26 |
All three: no impact risk. All three: tracked and confirmed by NASA JPL.
FAQs:
Q: Will the asteroids on April 27, 2026 hit Earth?
No. Both 2026 HJ3 and 2026 HR will pass at roughly 3.8–4 million miles from Earth. There is no impact risk.
Q: How big is an "airplane-sized" asteroid exactly?
The objects today range from 68 to 81 feet, slightly smaller than a standard commercial aircraft. For comparison, the Chelyabinsk meteor was about 65 feet.
Q: What would happen if one of these hit Earth?
An object this size would likely fragment in the upper atmosphere. It could produce a blast wave and window-shattering shockwaves like Chelyabinsk (2013), but would not cause mass extinction or city-scale destruction.
Q: How does NASA find these asteroids?
Through ground-based telescope networks, radar systems at Goldstone, California, and increasingly newer observatories like the Vera Rubin telescope in Chile.
Q: Is there a bigger asteroid India should worry about?
Asteroid Apophis — roughly 370 metres wide — will pass within 20,000 miles of Earth on April 13, 2029, closer than many satellites. NASA has confirmed no impact risk for at least 100 years.
Sources:
- NASA/JPL Asteroid Watch Dashboard
- Space.com (April 2026)