Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (152637) 1997 NC1 close encounter: new image & video – 19 June 2026.
We are happy to share with you our latest image and a video of the potentially hazardous asteroid (152637) 1997 NC1, captured while it is safely approaching us, ready to show it to you, live, online.
Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (152637) 1997 NC1: 19 June 2026.
The picture above comes from a single 120-second exposure, remotely taken with the “Elena” (PlaneWave 17″ + Paramount MEII + SBIG STL-6303E) robotic unit available as part of the Virtual Telescope Project in Manciano, Italy. The telescope was asked to track the apparent motion of the asteroid, which is visible at the center of the image, indicated by an arrow, while stars leave short streaks. Comparing this image with the ones taken in the past weeks, the object is obviously getting brighter, night after night.
At the time of the image, asteroid 1997 NC1 was at about 6.3-million of kilometers from us and safely approaching.
Using 80 frames taken back to back during the imaging session, we created this short animation, showing asteroid 1997 NC1 traveling against the stars on the background.
Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (152637) 1997 NC1: an animation – 19 June 2026.
This 710-1600 meters large asteroid will reach its minimum distance from us on 27 June 2026, at 11:16 UTC, safely coming as close as 2.6-million of kilometers, 6.6x the average lunar distance) (source: Nasa/JPL). On average, an object of this size comes so close every ten years or so. Of course, there are no risks at all for our planet.
We will show this object live!
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