896-Sneaky But Potentially Dangerous

896-Sneaky But Potentially Dangerous

From Travelers In The Night by Albert D. Grauer

April 24, 2026 · 2 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the discovery of the asteroid 2026 BX4 and its potential threat to Earth.

My Catalina Sky Survey teammate Greg Leonard was asteroid hunting with our 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona when he came across an unknown moving point of light in the night sky. After Greg reported his observations to the Minor Planet Center his discovery was tracked by telescopes in California, Romania, Germany, New Mexico, Arizona, Bavaria, and Japan. Astronomers used these data to calculate that Greg’s discovery orbits the sun between Venus and Earth , estimate its size to be approximately twice the length of a football field, and give it the name 2026 BX4. NASA classifies it to be a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid, however, since it doesn’t cross the Earth’s orbit it is not an immediate impact threat. In fact it will not come as close to us as it can on its current path until February 17, 2075 when it will pass less than 6 times the moon’s distance from us. Because 2026 BX4’s orbit is entirely within the Earth’s path about the Sun it is classified to be an Atira asteroid. These space rocks are difficult to discover and track because they are always near the Sun in the sky. 2026 BX4 could become an impact threat by gravitational interactions with Earth, Venus or…

People in this episode

Host: Albert D. Grauer

Topics covered

  • asteroid discovery
  • potentially hazardous asteroids
  • astronomy
  • space rocks
  • orbital mechanics

Keywords

  • asteroid
  • 2026 BX4
  • NASA
  • potentially hazardous
  • astronomy
  • orbital path
  • impact threat

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: NASA

Books & works: 2026 BX4, Apophis

Places: Mt. Lemmon, Arizona, California, Romania, Germany, New Mexico, Bavaria, Japan

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