{"id":272616,"date":"2025-10-02T19:15:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T19:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/272616\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T19:15:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T19:15:17","slug":"asteroid-2025-tf-flew-just-420-km-260-miles-above-antarctica-second-closest-flyby-on-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/272616\/","title":{"rendered":"Asteroid 2025 TF flew just 420 km (260 miles) above Antarctica, second-closest flyby on record"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A newly-discovered asteroid designated 2025 TF made an extremely close approach to Earth at 00:49 UTC on October 1, reaching a nominal distance of 0.02 LD (0.00005 AU \/ 6 790 km \/ 4 220 miles) from Earth\u2019s center, or about 419 km (260 miles) above the surface over Antarctica.<\/p>\n<p>2025 TF is now ranked as the second-closest asteroid flyby on record, after 2020 VT4, which passed 6 746 km (4 190 miles) from Earth\u2019s center on November 13, 2020. Other exceptionally close encounters include 2024 XA at 7 726 km (4 800 miles), 2024 LH1 at 8 098 km (5 030 miles), 2024 UG9 at 8 850 km (5 500 miles), 2020 QG at 9 317 km (5 790 miles), and 2021 UA1 at 9 427 km (5 860 miles).<\/p>\n<p>Since January 1, 2025, observatories worldwide have detected 118 asteroids passing within 1 lunar distance of Earth, including 2025 TF. In September 2025 alone, 25 asteroids passed within 1 lunar distance of Earth.<\/p>\n<p>The newly-discovered object was first observed at the Kitt Peak-Bok Observatory in Arizona at 06:36 UTC on October 1, less than six hours after its closest approach.<\/p>\n<p>The object belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids and has an estimated diameter between 1.2 and 2.7 m (4\u20139 feet). It flew past Earth at a relative speed of 20.9 km\/s (75 200 km\/h or 46 700 mph).<\/p>\n<p><img data-perfmatters-preload=\"\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"992\" height=\"594\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/asteroid-2025-tf-close-approach-october-1-2025.webp.webp\" alt=\"asteroid 2025 tf close approach october 1 2025\" class=\"wp-image-235079\"   fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>Asteroid 2025 TF close approach to Earth on October 1, 2025. Credit: CNEOS<\/p>\n<p>Orbital calculations suggest 2025 TF follows an elongated path around the Sun, with a semi-major axis of 1.62 AU, perihelion at 0.676 AU, and aphelion at 2.56 AU. Its orbital period is about 2.06 years, with a modest inclination of 9.1\u00b0 to the ecliptic.<\/p>\n<p>The orbit remains poorly constrained, with current solutions based on a 1-day observation arc and a condition code of 7. Additional observations will be required to refine its trajectory and assess future encounters.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"914\" height=\"594\" alt=\"asteroid 2025 tf orbit diagram\" class=\"wp-image-235078 perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/asteroid-2025-tf-orbit-diagram.webp.webp\"  data-\/>Asteroid 2025 TF orbit diagram. Credit: CNEOS<\/p>\n<p>References:<\/p>\n<p>1 Asteroid 2025 TF \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/minorplanetcenter.net\/db_search\/show_object?object_id=2025+tf&amp;commit=Show\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Minor Planet Center<\/a> \u2013 Accessed on October 2, 2025<\/p>\n<p>2 Asteroid 2025 TF \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/ssd.jpl.nasa.gov\/tools\/sbdb_lookup.html#\/?sstr=2025%20TF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">NASA\/CNEOS<\/a> \u2013 Accessed on October 2, 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A newly-discovered asteroid designated 2025 TF made an extremely close approach to Earth at 00:49 UTC on October&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":272617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[141368,141369,141370,159,141371,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-272616","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-asteroid-2025-tf","9":"tag-close-approach","10":"tag-near-earth-asteroids","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-significant-events","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115306176976939304","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}