Overview
- Closest approach is expected on Friday, Dec. 19, at about 1.8 AU from Earth (roughly 167–170 million miles), and NASA says there is no impact risk.
- New XMM-Newton imagery shows low-energy X-ray emission from solar-wind interactions, while Gemini North color images reveal a green coma from diatomic carbon with nickel detected and iron not yet seen.
- Researchers report small non‑gravitational acceleration consistent with asymmetric outgassing, estimating a mass near 44 million metric tons and a nucleus radius of roughly 260–370 meters.
- The United Nations’ International Asteroid Warning Network, with NASA and more than 80 observatories, is conducting a coordinated astrometry campaign to refine the object’s trajectory and exercise planetary defense methods.
- Skywatchers can look before dawn in the east‑northeast beneath Regulus using a telescope of about 30 cm aperture, or watch a Virtual Telescope Project livestream starting 11 p.m. EST on Dec. 18.