Asteroids which came closer to Earth than the Moon in 2022 by time of discovery

Asteroids which came closer to Earth than the Moon in 2022 by discoverer

Below is the list of asteroids that have come close to Earth in 2022.

Timeline of known close approaches less than one lunar distance from Earth

A list of known near-Earth asteroid close approaches less than 1 lunar distance () from Earth in 2022, based on the close approach database of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS). During 2022 143 asteroids passed within 1 LD of Earth. As most asteroids passing within a lunar distance are less than 40 meters in diameter, they generally are not detected until they are within several million km of Earth.

For reference, the radius of Earth is about or 0.0166 lunar distances. Geosynchronous satellites have an orbit with semi-major axis length of or 0.110 lunar distances.

The first asteroid flyby within 1 LD of Earth in 2022 was asteroid 2021 YK (10–20 meters in diameter), which was observed on 27 December 2021 04:40 UT (when it was about 3.8 million km from Earth) and passed from Earth on 2 January 2022. The largest asteroid to pass within 1 LD of Earth in 2022 was with an estimated diameter between 24 and 53 meters for an absolute magnitude of 25.2. The fastest asteroid to pass within 1 LD of Earth in 2022 was that passed Earth with a velocity with respect to Earth of . passed Earth with a velocity with respect to Earth of 29.8 km/s and was moving away from the Sun at 38.1 km/s.

The CNEOS database of close approaches lists some close approaches a full orbit or more before the discovery of the object, derived by orbit calculation. The list below only includes close approaches that are evidenced by observations, thus the pre-discovery close approaches would only be included if the object was found by precovery, but there was no such close approach in 2022.

This list and relevant databases do not consider impacts as close approaches, thus this list does not include and , two asteroids which were predicted to impact on Earth and burned up in its atmosphere, as well as several more objects that collided with Earth's atmosphere in 2023 which weren't discovered in advance, but were observed visually or recorded by infrasound sensors designed to detect detonation of nuclear devices.NASA.gov