This is a list of examples where an asteroid or meteoroid travels close to the Earth. Some of these objects are regarded as potentially hazardous objects if they are estimated to be large enough to cause regional devastation. This list also gives an overview of more detailed lists dedicated to specific years, such as List of asteroid close approaches to Earth in 2025. Near-Earth object detection technology began to improve around 1998, so objects being detected as of 2004 could have been missed only a decade earlier due to a lack of dedicated near-Earth astronomical surveys. As sky surveys improve, smaller and smaller asteroids are regularly being discovered. As smaller asteroids are more numerous, ever more close approaches are detected within a given distance. In 2014, scientists estimated that several dozen asteroids in the 6–12 m (20–39 ft) size range fly by Earth at a distance closer than the Moon every year, but only a fraction of these are actually detected.
Definitions The lists below are based on the close approach database of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), in its state as of 27 February 2025. The database lists any approaches with a minimum distance less than 0.2 astronomical units (AU) from 1900 and until a century into the future which have been derived by orbit calculations. This includes some close approaches a full orbit or more before or after the object has been observed. The distance calculated for an approach has an uncertainty, the magnitude of which depends on the amount, length in time and quality of observations used, the extrapolation time from the observations, and perturbations by other objects along the predicted orbit. The uncertainty is usually characterised by the 3-sigma uncertainty region, which is the nominal close approach distance plus or minus three times the standard deviation, and includes 99.7% of the probability distribution. For predicted close approaches in the future, if Earth is near the uncertainty region or intersects it, an impact risk is calculated. Confirmed impacts, however, aren't considered close approaches and are excluded from the CNEOS close approach database. Asteroids whose detection in space led to predicted impacts on Earth are listed separately, as are the hundreds of other objects that collided with Earth's atmosphere which were not discovered in advance but were observed visually or recorded by sensors designed to detect detonation of nuclear devices. The CNEOS list also does not include Earth-grazers, objects that enter Earth's atmosphere at a very shallow angle and leave it again without burning up completely, but they are listed separately below. Although Earth's atmosphere thins out continuously with distance from Earth's surface, the nominal limit of space is the Kármán line, which is 100 km (62 mi) above sea level.
Timeline of closest approaches ever observed The list below shows all approaches by potentially hazardous objects (objects which can approach Earth within 0.05 AU) without atmospheric contact which have been the closest ever observed at some point in time, from the discovery of the first such object to the record holder, as of December 2025.
Close approaches within one lunar distance The average distance to the Moon (or lunar distance (LD)) is 384,399 km (238,854 mi), which is around 30 times the diameter of the Earth. The lists in this section are of close approaches in less than one LD.
Time of discovery The bar graphs below show the time of discovery relative to the time of the closest approach for each year. The asteroids are listed in separate list articles for each year. The statistics below only include close approaches that are evidenced by observations, thus the pre-discovery close approaches are only included if the object was found by precovery.
Closest per year
From the annual lists summarized in the preceding section, these are the closest known asteroids per year that approach Earth within one lunar distance. More than one asteroid per year may be listed if its geocentric distance The CNEOS database of close approaches lists some close approaches a full orbit or more before or after the discovery of the object, derived by orbit calculation. Until 2001 and in future years, all of these close approaches are included in the list below, but from the start of regular discoveries each year in 2001 until the current year, the list is limited to close approaches that are evidenced by observations, thus any of these pre-discovery close approaches are only included if the object was found by precovery. Rows highlighted red indicate objects which were not discovered until after closest approach Rows highlighted yellow indicate objects discovered less than 24 hours before closest approach Rows left white indicate objects discovered 1–7 days before closest approach Rows highlighted green indicate objects discovered more than one week before closest approach Rows highlighted blue indicate objects discovered more than one year before closest approach, i.e. objects successfully cataloged on a previous orbit, rather than being detected during final approach.
*367943 Duende is listed for 2013 although it was only the second-closest that year for notability: it is the largest asteroid that was observed while it approached within the radius of the geostationary orbit, it was also predicted nearly a year in advance, and coincidentally approached just a few hours after the unrelated Chelyabinsk meteor, which was unpredicted, but injured thousands of people when it impacted.
Largest per year
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