Car-sized asteroid to skim Earth tonight at about half the Moon's distance
A car-sized near-Earth asteroid named 2026 FM3, discovered days ago by the Zwicky Transient Facility at Palomar, will pass by Earth tonight at roughly 237,918 km (about 0.618 lunar distances) at ~11,461 mph. The flyby is timed for 10:07 p.m. EDT (02:07 GMT) and the object will also miss the Moon a few hours later, at about 595,492 km. With an estimated diameter of 4–8 meters, it poses no risk to Earth or the Moon, and NASA expects no close approaches for the next century. The event highlights how upcoming observatories will keep finding many more near-Earth objects.)