An Asteroid Just Streaked Over Antarctica, Becoming the Second Closest Flyby Ever Recorded
A week ago, an asteroid flew so close to Earth that it almost broke the record for the closest approach ever made by an asteroid.
This space surprise caught the attention of astronomers on Wednesday October 1, 2025, when the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona spotted an asteroid named 2025 TF a few hours after it passed Earth. Flying over Antarctica, the asteroid occurred just 428 kilometers (266 miles) from Earth’s surface. For reference, the International Space Station orbits our planet at a similar altitude, about 370 to 460 km (254 miles).
Asteroid 2025 TF may have been just a near miss, but keeping tabs on near-Earth objects like this — even if most miss Earth — is a never-ending responsibility for astronomers.
Learn more: Asteroid mining gives companies hope in rare metals search
Flyby of asteroid 2025 TF
Although it may seem like we narrowly avoided a fate seen in many disaster blockbusters, 2025 TF never posed any danger to Earth. The asteroid is between 1 and 3 meters wide, meaning it would have at most produced a fireball in the sky if it had approached closer to Earth.
Asteroids smaller than 25 meters (82 feet) typically burn up if they enter Earth’s atmosphere. However, it is still possible that these asteroids fragment and disperse meteorites on the surface.
An example of this scenario occurred in February 2023, when a small asteroid named 2023 CX1 (just under a meter in diameter) disintegrated above the coast of Normandy, France. Astronomers were quick to notice the asteroid, discovering it 7 hours before it entered Earth’s atmosphere. It became the seventh asteroid to be successfully detected before its impact with the planet.
As it ignited in the atmosphere, the asteroid produced a double flare of light. It then violently fractured, releasing 98% of its kinetic energy in the blink of an eye and sending over a hundred meteor fragments across Normandy.
As intense as it sounds, most smaller asteroids don’t cause much damage if they enter Earth’s atmosphere. Even if 2025 TF had moved closer to Earth, it would not have been disastrous for us.
The two main closest asteroid approaches
2025 TF passed by Earth at a much lower altitude than many satellites – low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, for example, are located between 160 km and 2,000 km above the surface. As a result, it became the second closest non-impact asteroid approach ever observed. The only other asteroid recorded at a closer distance is 2020 VT4, which passed 370 km (230 miles) above Earth’s surface in November 2020.
The 2020 VT4 is a bit larger than the 2025 TF, with a diameter of approximately 5 to 10 meters (16 to 32 feet). Yet even at this size, 2020 VT4 would likely have disintegrated if it had entered Earth’s atmosphere.
Keeping an eye on asteroids
2025 TF wasn’t the only asteroid to come close to Earth during the first week of October. On Thursday, October 2, astronomers at the Mount Lemmon Observatory in Arizona observed another asteroid, 2025 TQ2, passing over Canada at an altitude of 4,851 km (3,014 miles).
Astronomers track a multitude of asteroids and other near-Earth objects (NEOs) each month, as close approaches are relatively common. Unlike 2025 TF, some other asteroids that approach Earth are much larger, although they did not come as close. In July 2025, an airplane-sized asteroid (2025 OW) passed 393,000 miles from Earth, and in September 2025, a skyscraper-sized asteroid (2025 FA22) passed 520,000 miles from Earth. Fortunately, none of them were deemed dangerous.
As for 2025 TF, it will not revisit Earth’s periphery until its next close approach in April 2087, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Learn more: An asteroid the size of a plane will fly by Earth next week, sparing us from an impact
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