Will the asteroid Apophis hit Earth in 2029?

No. Asteroid 99942 Apophis will make an exceptionally close flyby on April 13, 2029, passing about 32,000 km from Earth's surface — closer than many geostationary satellites and visible to the naked eye — but NASA has ruled out any impact risk for at least the next century.

Live tracker · near-Earth objects

Asteroids passing Earth this week

Q: Is an asteroid going to hit Earth?

No known asteroid poses a significant impact threat to Earth in the foreseeable future. NASA and international partners track thousands of near-Earth objects and continuously refine their orbits; none of the currently catalogued large asteroids is on a confirmed collision course. Small objects a few meters across do enter the atmosphere regularly and harmlessly burn up as meteors.

Q: What does a close approach mean?

A close approach is when an asteroid's orbit brings it near Earth. In astronomy 'close' can still mean millions of kilometers. Distances are often measured in lunar distances (LD) — one LD is the average Earth–Moon distance of about 384,000 km. Many asteroids pass within a few lunar distances every week without any danger.

Q: What is a potentially hazardous asteroid?

A potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) is one larger than about 140 meters whose orbit can bring it within 0.05 astronomical units (about 7.5 million km) of Earth's orbit. 'Potentially hazardous' is a classification based on size and orbit, not a prediction of impact — the vast majority of PHAs will never come close to hitting Earth.

Several asteroids pass near Earth every single week — and almost all of them are completely harmless. The short answer to the question everyone asks: no known asteroid is on a collision course with Earth. Here's what a "close approach" actually means, how NASA tracks these objects, and a live tracker showing current near-Earth asteroids with their real miss distances and orbits.

☄️ See live asteroid close approaches →

What "close approach" really means

In astronomy, "close" is relative. A close approach simply means an asteroid's orbit brings it into Earth's neighborhood — but that can still be millions of kilometers away. Distances are often given in lunar distances (LD), where one LD is the average Earth–Moon distance of about 384,000 km. An asteroid passing at 5 LD is nearly two million kilometers away — newsworthy to astronomers, no threat to anyone.

How NASA tracks near-Earth objects

NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at JPL maintains the authoritative catalog of near-Earth asteroids and comets, continuously computing their orbits from telescope observations worldwide. Every new sighting refines the orbit and the predicted close-approach distance. SkyLens pulls this live public data — miss distance, velocity, size estimate, and the potentially-hazardous flag — straight from NASA/JPL.

Is any asteroid going to hit Earth?

No catalogued large asteroid is on a confirmed impact trajectory in the foreseeable future. Objects a few meters across do enter the atmosphere fairly often and burn up harmlessly as bright meteors. The ones worth tracking are potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) — larger than ~140 m with orbits that can bring them relatively close — but that's a size-and-orbit classification, not an impact prediction. The famous case, 99942 Apophis, will pass just ~32,000 km from Earth on April 13, 2029 (closer than geostationary satellites, visible to the naked eye) with impact fully ruled out for over a century.

See live close approaches

To see which asteroids are passing right now — with their real miss distances, speeds, and 3D orbital paths — open the SkyLens asteroid tracker. It visualizes live NASA/JPL near-Earth object data alongside the satellite globe. For the science of orbits and how these predictions are made, see Learn Space.

Open the live asteroid tracker →

Frequently asked questions

Is an asteroid going to hit Earth?

No known asteroid poses a significant impact threat in the foreseeable future. Small meteors burn up harmlessly all the time.

What does a close approach mean?

An asteroid passing near Earth — often still millions of km away, measured in lunar distances (1 LD ≈ 384,000 km).

What is a potentially hazardous asteroid?

An object >140 m whose orbit can come within ~7.5 million km of Earth's orbit — a classification, not an impact prediction.

Will Apophis hit Earth in 2029?

No — it passes ~32,000 km away on April 13, 2029, with impact ruled out for over a century.

Explore more

Track what else is overhead: see the ISS tonight, spot Starlink satellites, or open the live tracker.