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Skyscraper-Size Asteroid Once Feared to Hit Earth Zooms Past This Week – How to Watch Live
16 September 2025
18 mins read

Skyscraper-Size Asteroid Once Feared to Hit Earth Zooms Past This Week – How to Watch Live

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An asteroid the size of a skyscraper, once briefly feared to pose an impact risk decades from now, is about to make a close (but safe) flyby of Earth on Thursday, September 18, 2025. This near-Earth asteroid, officially designated 2025 FA22, will whiz by at ~24,000 mph in the early hours of Thursday, coming within about 520,000 miles (835,000 km) of our planet – roughly 2.2 times the distance of the Moon livescience.com. Discovered only in March 2025, the giant space rock made headlines when initial calculations suggested a slim chance of an Earth impact in the year 2089, briefly vaulting it to the top of the European Space Agency’s asteroid risk list livescience.com esa.int. Thankfully, further observations ruled out any collision, and 2025 FA22 is now confirmed no threat – but it’s still generating excitement among astronomers and the public. Here’s everything you need to know about this dramatic flyby, from the asteroid’s key facts and history to how scientists are watching it and how you can see it live.

  • Asteroid Name & Size: 2025 FA22 – a “potentially hazardous asteroid” about 130 to 290 meters across (427–951 feet), roughly comparable to a skyscraper’s height livescience.com. An object this size could devastate a city if it ever struck Earth livescience.com, hence the attention from planetary defense teams.
  • Closest Approach to Earth: Occurs September 18, 2025 at ~07:41 UTC (3:41 a.m. EDT). At that moment, 2025 FA22 will be about 835,700 km away – a little over twice the Moon’s distance esa.int. In cosmic terms that’s a close pass, but still very safe (for comparison, the Moon orbits ~384,000 km away).
  • Speed: Zipping by at roughly 24,000 miles per hour (38,600 km/h) relative to Earth livescience.com. This is about 33 times the speed of sound, typical for asteroids near Earth.
  • Initial Impact Scare: Right after discovery, this asteroid had a calculated 0.01% (1 in 10,000) chance of hitting Earth on its return in 2089 livescience.com. That low probability, combined with its large size, briefly gave it the #1 spot on ESA’s impact risk list in April 2025 esa.int. However, follow-up observations refined its orbit and eliminated the threat within weeks livescience.com. By May 2025, 2025 FA22 was removed from risk listings entirely livescience.com.
  • Current Risk Status:No danger whatsoever. NASA and ESA now rate the asteroid as Torino Scale 0 (no hazard), with 0% chance of impact in the foreseeable future esa.int esa.int. In fact, updated projections show it will miss Earth by a comfortable 6 million km in 2089 livescience.com. (For context, the Torino Scale is a 0–10 alert system for impact risk – nearly all newly-discovered asteroids drop to 0 after orbit refinements livescience.com livescience.com.)
  • Scientific Interest: Planetary defense teams are seizing this flyby as a valuable drill. The International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN) is conducting a global observation campaign to practice tracking and characterizing 2025 FA22 as if it were a potential impactor livescience.com esa.int. NASA’s Goldstone radar in California will ping the asteroid to map its shape and size more accurately livescience.com, and telescopes worldwide are gathering data on its orbit and properties.
  • Visibility & How to Watch: At closest approach the asteroid will reach about magnitude 13 – far too dim for the naked eye, but just bright enough for experienced amateur astronomers using decent 8+ inch telescopes or large binoculars under dark skies livescience.com. For everyone else, a live online viewing is available: the Virtual Telescope Project will stream the flyby in real time, starting Wed. Sept 17 at 11:00 p.m. EDT (03:00 UTC Sept 18) livescience.com. Tune in to see a bright dot gliding among the stars – a “once-in-a-decade” close encounter safely unfolding before our eyes.

From Discovery to ‘Defused’ Threat: 2025 FA22’s Story

Asteroid 2025 FA22 was first spotted in late March 2025 by the Pan-STARRS 2 survey telescope in Hawaii livescience.com. Within days, automated orbit calculations delivered startling news: this newly found rock had a very slight chance of impacting Earth in the year 2089 during a future pass livescience.com. The estimated odds (around 1 in 10,000) were small, but not zero livescience.com. Because of the asteroid’s large size – roughly 130–290 m wide – even a slim impact chance was taken seriously. European Space Agency (ESA) analysts placed 2025 FA22 at the top of their “Risk List,” a leaderboard of near-Earth objects with non-zero impact probabilities esa.int. For a short time, it was literally the most concerning asteroid known to planetary defenders (even though the statistical risk was still very low).

This story unfolded around the same time another asteroid (2024 YR4) grabbed headlines for a much higher 2032 impact probability, causing a brief public scare livescience.com. In the shadow of that drama, 2025 FA22’s “2089 impact” story still made waves in science news outlets livescience.com. Fortunately – and predictably in hindsight – additional observations soon came to the rescue. Astronomers around the world jumped on the opportunity to track 2025 FA22 every night. With more data points on its trajectory, orbital models were refined and the projected path in 2089 shifted well clear of Earth. In ESA’s words, “high-priority follow-up observations soon allowed astronomers to refine the asteroid’s trajectory and rule out any impact risk” esa.int. By early May 2025, ESA removed 2025 FA22 from its Risk List entirely esa.int, and NASA’s Sentry monitoring system likewise downgraded the threat to zero.

“However, high-priority follow-up observations soon allowed astronomers to refine the asteroid’s trajectory and rule out any impact risk.” – ESA officials, on rapidly clearing 2025 FA22 from the risk list esa.int

Today we know 2025 FA22 poses no danger in 2089 or anytime in the next century. In fact, NASA’s latest calculations show that in 2089 the asteroid will miss Earth by about 3.7 million miles (6 million km) livescience.com, about 7 times farther than it will be during this week’s flyby. And looking even further ahead, astronomers have identified another close approach in 2173, when 2025 FA22 is expected to come much nearer – roughly 200,000 miles (320,000 km), actually closer than the Moon livescience.com. Even that 2173 pass is not projected to hit Earth, but it will be an eyebrow-raising proximity for future generations to monitor. The bottom line: the initial impact concern has been “defused” by science, demonstrating exactly how the planetary defense system is supposed to work – find the object, calculate the risk, gather more data, and remove the threat through better understanding.

Beyond its former risk status, 2025 FA22 is significant as a real-world exercise for asteroid tracking. Because it was flagged briefly, it prompted coordinated observations and even an ongoing international drill. The International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN) selected 2025 FA22 for a full-scale observation campaign, essentially turning this flyby into a planetary defense fire drill livescience.com. Around the world, telescopes are measuring everything they can – the asteroid’s exact position, motion, brightness, and even polarization of its light – as if preparing for a deflection mission down the road esa.int. “While 2025 FA22 poses no danger, practicing our ability to measure these properties is important, as they influence how an asteroid will react to any attempt to deflect it off of a collision course with Earth,” ESA officials explained, underscoring the value of the exercise esa.int. In other words, this harmless flyby is helping us get ready for a harmful one in the future, should one ever arise.

Past Close Shaves: Similar Asteroid Near-Misses

2025 FA22’s upcoming pass is exciting, but it’s hardly the first asteroid to make headlines with a close flyby or potential impact scare. Near-Earth asteroids buzz our planet frequently, though most are much smaller. Here are a few notable comparisons that put this week’s event in perspective:

  • Apophis (99942 Apophis): Perhaps the most famous near-miss, Apophis is a ~340-meter asteroid that caused a sensation in 2004 when initial calculations suggested a significant chance of impact in 2029. In fact, Apophis briefly rated Level 4 on the Torino Scale (the highest threat ever assigned) during the first days of analysis reddit.com. Further observations eliminated the 2029 danger, and we now know Apophis will safely pass about 23,000 miles from Earth’s surface on April 13, 2029 newsweek.com – extremely close, but a miss. Scientists are eagerly planning for that flyby (some call it a “once-in-a-millennium” opportunity) to study Apophis up close livescience.com. It’s a prime example of an asteroid that went from alarming to harmless thanks to diligent tracking. (Apophis will be visible to the naked eye in 2029 and has sparked its own observation campaigns, much like 2025 FA22 on a larger scale.)
  • Asteroid 2024 YR4: A more recent case, 2024 YR4 is a ~55-meter “city-killer” asteroid discovered in late 2024. In January 2025, its calculated impact probability for 2032 suddenly jumped above 1%, giving it a Torino Scale rating of 3 (meriting attention for potential “localized destruction”) livescience.com livescience.com. This was unusually high – the highest impact odds NASA had ever recorded for an object of that size or larger livescience.com – and understandably caused public concern. But as so often happens, more observations came in and the odds plummeted. Within a couple of weeks, the impact probability fell to 0.005% (1 in 20,000) livescience.com, and NASA officially downgraded YR4 to Torino Scale 0 (“No Hazard”) livescience.com livescience.com. “Asteroid 2024 YR4 has now been reassigned to Torino Scale Level Zero… as additional tracking of its orbital path reduces its possibility of intersecting Earth to below the 1-in-1000 threshold,” said Richard Binzel, MIT planetary scientist and inventor of the Torino Scale livescience.com. In short: it went from the record books to a non-threat, illustrating how dynamic asteroid risk assessments can be.
  • Other Notable Flybys: There have been plenty of other close approaches by large asteroids. In 2019, a 100-meter asteroid named 2019 OK surprised astronomers by flying within ~70,000 km of Earth – about 0.18 lunar distances – essentially dashing past us with only a day’s warning (a reminder that detection isn’t perfect). And in 2013, on the very same day a small meteor exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, another asteroid (2012 DA14) about 30 meters wide passed just 27,700 km from Earth’s surface (inside the altitude of geosynchronous satellites) sandia.gov sandia.gov. That one was known in advance and missed as expected, but the coincidental timing with the Chelyabinsk impact was eerie. These events underscore that “this stuff is whizzing past all the time,” as Lindley Johnson – NASA’s Planetary Defense Officer – put it sandia.gov. Thankfully, none of these recent near-misses resulted in impacts, and ongoing sky surveys are improving our chances of spotting the next one with plenty of lead time.

Each of the above cases, like 2025 FA22, ended up harmless, but they’ve contributed to our preparedness. They prompted telescope campaigns, media coverage, and public interest that ultimately raise awareness of asteroid hazards. They also highlight the importance of continued monitoring – the sooner we find these objects, the more calmly we can deal with them. As NASA’s Lindley Johnson famously said: “We definitely want to find all [the asteroids] before they find us.” businessinsider.com

How We Track and Classify Threatening Asteroids

Keeping Earth safe from asteroid impacts is a global effort blending astronomy, engineering, and public communication. Here’s how it works and where 2025 FA22 fits in:

  • Continuous Sky Surveys: NASA, ESA, and other agencies fund automated telescope surveys that scan the skies nightly for moving objects. Programs like Pan-STARRS, Catalina Sky Survey, ATLAS, and others have discovered tens of thousands of near-Earth asteroids. (It was Pan-STARRS 2 that found 2025 FA22 livescience.com.) To date, astronomers have cataloged over 34,000 near-Earth asteroids of all sizes businessinsider.com, with new ones found every week. Each new object’s orbit is computed to check for potential future impacts. Often, initial orbits have uncertainties – leading to small chances of impact that can alarm – but more observations usually clarify that an asteroid will miss Earth, as happened with 2025 FA22 and others. It’s worth noting we’ve already found ~95% of the truly giant asteroids (1 km or larger) that could cause global catastrophe. The focus now is on the medium-sized asteroids (tens to a few hundred meters), of which an estimated two-thirds are still undiscovered sandia.gov. These could cause regional devastation (city to country-sized), so we want to find them before they find us!
  • “Potentially Hazardous” Criteria: You’ll often hear objects like 2025 FA22 described as “Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs).” This has a specific definition. An asteroid qualifies as a PHA if it’s about 140 meters or larger and its orbit brings it within 7.5 million km of Earth’s orbit (about 4.6 million miles, roughly 20 times the Earth–Moon distance) iflscience.com. In the words of astrophysicist Gianluca Masi (director of the Virtual Telescope Project): “Only the largest asteroids capable of approaching close enough to our planet are flagged as PHAs, which does not mean they are going to hit Earth, but they nonetheless warrant better monitoring.” iflscience.com 2025 FA22, at ~130–290 m across and coming well within 7.5 million km, certainly met the size and distance criteria and is thus categorized a PHA livescience.com newsweek.com. Again – potentially hazardous does not mean destined to hit; it just means “keep an eye on this one,” which is exactly what’s being done.
  • Impact Risk Lists and Rapid Reassessment: Both NASA and ESA maintain dynamic risk lists (NASA’s is managed by the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, CNEOS, and ESA’s by its Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre). When a new asteroid is found, these systems compute possible future orbits and list any dates where an impact, however unlikely, can’t yet be ruled out. Asteroids like 2025 FA22 can land on the list with a tiny probability. That often generates scary-sounding headlines, but these initial risk ratings almost always drop to zero after additional tracking. For instance, NASA’s Sentry system initially showed a 1 in 10,000 chance for 2025 FA22 in 2089 livescience.com, but after a few weeks of data, the chance fell to essentially 0. The same happened for 2024 YR4 (from 3% down to ~0% livescience.com livescience.com) and Apophis (from a worrying 2.7% in 2029 down to 0% reddit.com). This iterative process is a feature of planetary defense, not a flaw – it shows the system catching potential threats early and then refining knowledge to eliminate false alarms. As of now (late 2025), no known asteroid has a concerning impact probability; all are Torino Scale 0, thanks to diligent follow-up observations livescience.com.
  • The Torino Scale: Speaking of Torino – this is a color-coded scale (0 to 10) used to communicate an asteroid’s impact risk to the public. Level 0 means no hazard (either the object is too small to harm Earth or impact probability is effectively zero). Level 1 means a normal, very low probability (no cause for public concern, routine tracking advised). Levels 2–4 indicate higher probabilities for smaller impacts or very low probabilities for big impacts – enough to merit attention by astronomers, but not public alarm. Levels 5–7 would mean a serious situation: significant odds of impact capable of regional or global damage. Levels 8–10 would be certain impacts of various scales (up to a doomsday-sized 10). It’s worth noting no asteroid has ever been rated above 4 since the scale’s adoption in 1999 reddit.com. 99942 Apophis was a 4 for a few days in 2004 (until its risk was recalculated lower) reddit.com. Early in 2025, 2024 YR4 became a 3 for a short period – a rarity that caught everyone’s attention livescience.com. Most others, like 2025 FA22, have stayed at Torino 0 or 1 at best. The Torino Scale is a handy public guide: right now, everything we know about is Torino 0, including 2025 FA22 (after its “downgrade”). In fact, after YR4 was cleared in February, there were no asteroids at Torino >0 on watch lists livescience.com. That’s good news – though it can always change with a new discovery.
  • Planetary Defense in Action: When an asteroid does raise concern, NASA, ESA, and partners have a coordinated plan. IAWN (the International Asteroid Warning Network) ensures observatories worldwide communicate and confirm findings businessinsider.com. If a serious threat emerges, NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) would notify government leaders and potentially the United Nations businessinsider.com. We’ve also developed mitigation strategies. In 2022, NASA’s DART mission successfully impacted an asteroid moonlet (Dimorphos) to slightly shift its orbit – humanity’s first test of asteroid deflection businessinsider.com. For larger asteroids, other concepts (like nuclear standoff blasts or gravity tractors) are being studied, but the key is early detection. “A large asteroid impact is potentially the only natural disaster humanity has the technology to predict years in advance and take action to prevent,” NASA scientists say nasa.gov. That’s why finding asteroids like 2025 FA22 early is so crucial. As Lindley Johnson noted, “It’s the luck of the draw we’re not hit [yet]… This stuff is whizzing past all the time.” sandia.gov We were lucky for millennia; now we’re actively stacking the odds in our favor by scouting the heavens.
  • Public Outreach and Preparedness: Communicating asteroid risks without hype is part of the job. Events like this week’s flyby actually help – they raise awareness during a non-crisis. Every year on June 30, Asteroid Day is held to educate the public (chosen to commemorate the 1908 Tunguska impact in Siberia). Agencies frequently put out press releases when notable asteroids are discovered or approach (NASA’s @AsteroidWatch social media will often clarify that an upcoming flyby is safe). For 2025 FA22, outreach has been proactive: ESA even released an infographic with the tagline “Asteroid Safe Close Approach” to emphasize there’s zero chance of impact cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net. In that ESA bulletin, Juan Luis Cano of ESA’s Planetary Defence Office highlighted that “This asteroid will safely pass Earth at just over twice the distance to the Moon,” and noted that international observers are using it to test our ability to track a nearby asteroid’s orbit and physical properties – turning a close shave into a learning opportunity. The more people understand these processes, the better we can handle any future asteroid threat calmly and rationally.

Public Fascination and Media Buzz

Asteroids have a special hold on the public imagination – they’re the villains of countless disaster movies and clickbait news headlines. The reality is usually far less dire, but events like the 2025 FA22 flyby show how media coverage and public interest spike around cosmic close encounters. In this case, the asteroid’s backstory (briefly being “predicted to hit us in 60 years”) made for an attention-grabbing hook livescience.com. Science news outlets around the world ran with it:

  • Live Science dubbed 2025 FA22 the “skyscraper-size asteroid” that was once atop a major risk list, emphasizing its 2089 impact scare and subsequent all-clear livescience.com. The focus was on how you can “see it live” during the flyby, reassuring readers it’s a unique spectacle, not a doom scenario.
  • Newsweek highlighted NASA’s role, with a headline “Skyscraper-Sized Asteroid Approaching Earth, NASA Reports” newsweek.com. Their coverage put the distance in context (“just 523,000 miles… for context, the Moon is ~239,000 miles away” newsweek.com) and reiterated NASA’s criteria for hazardous asteroids (objects >150 m coming within 4.6 million miles) newsweek.com. This kind of framing helps readers grasp why a twice-Moon-distance flyby is noteworthy but not scary.
  • Other international media localized the story. For example, The Times of India compared 2025 FA22’s size to Delhi’s famous Qutub Minar tower – “significantly larger” – to convey scale timesofindia.indiatimes.com. They also echoed NASA’s confirmation of “no collision threat” and spun the flyby as a valuable opportunity for science and Indian space researchers timesofindia.indiatimes.com timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Such angles show how different audiences find relevance in these events, whether it’s marveling at the size or national scientific involvement.
  • On social media, astronomy enthusiasts have been buzzing about the flyby all week. The Virtual Telescope Project’s livestream announcement was shared widely on platforms like X (Twitter) and Facebook, inviting people worldwide to join in watching a real asteroid in real time. Amateur astronomers are exchanging tips on forums for spotting the faint 13th-magnitude speck through their own telescopes. Even though nothing will be visible to the naked eye, just knowing a big space rock is out there gliding past has a thrill to it. As one user quipped on a forum: “It’s fun to wave at these asteroids as they go by – and even more fun knowing they missed!”

Meanwhile, planetary defense officials welcome this kind of public interest. It’s a chance to highlight the serious work being done behind the scenes. You’ll often see NASA and ESA use these moments to educate: explaining how common asteroid flybys are, or how early warning led to these reassuring outcomes. The narrative around 2025 FA22 – from “top of the risk list” to “safely zooming past” – actually demonstrates success in our detection and tracking efforts. It’s a nuanced story: yes, at first it looked worrisome, no, we’re not actually in danger, and yes, we learned a lot from it. Media coverage, when done responsibly, reinforces that understanding. And for the public, there’s a natural fascination with near-misses; it’s a reminder that we live in a cosmic shooting gallery, but also that we have the tools to see the bullets coming.

Watching the Flyby: How to See 2025 FA22 in Real Time

If you’re excited to witness this asteroid’s flyby (from the comfort of Earth), mark your calendar for the night of Sept 17–18, 2025. Here are the ways to observe or follow the event:

  • Virtual Telescope Project Livestream: The best and easiest option for everyone. Astrophysicist Gianluca Masi and his Virtual Telescope Project team will host a free live webcast of 2025 FA22’s flyby livescience.com. They’ll use a 14-inch robotic telescope based in Italy to track the asteroid’s faint glow against the stars in real time. The stream is set to begin around 11:00 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, Sept 17 (which is 03:00 UTC Sept 18) livescience.com, and continue through the closest approach. Viewers will see a starfield on their screens with a tiny moving dot – that’s the asteroid speeding by Earth. Commentary will provide context on the asteroid’s location, speed, and significance. You can find the livestream link via the Virtual Telescope Project’s website or YouTube channel (Live Science and other outlets have also shared the link) livescience.com. It’s a fantastic way to participate in a cosmic event as it happens, and tens of thousands of people from around the world often tune in for these webcasts.
  • Backyard Telescopes & Binoculars: For experienced skywatchers, 2025 FA22 offers a challenging target. At magnitude ~13 at peak brightness livescience.com, it’s about 250 times dimmer than the faintest stars visible to the naked eye. Seeing it requires at least a decent telescope (recommended ~8–12 inches or larger), dark skies, and knowing exactly where to look. If you have the gear, you can use online tools like TheSkyLive.com or NASA’s JPL Horizons system to get the asteroid’s coordinates for your time and location livescience.com. Over the hours of closest approach, 2025 FA22 will drift through the constellations of Cetus and Pisces (for observers in the Northern Hemisphere). It will be located in the predawn sky for North America on Sept 18, and earlier in the night for Europe/Africa (which is why the Italy-based livestream is well-timed). Through a telescope, don’t expect more than a tiny dot – it will look like a star that slowly moves position over minutes. If using high magnification, you might actually discern its motion in real time. Some advanced amateurs plan to take long-exposure photos to capture the asteroid’s trail as a streak among the stars. Note: Do not expect to see any detail on the asteroid – at 800,000+ km away, even large telescopes will only register a point of light.
  • Radar Observations (Post-Flyby): While not something the public can “watch” live, it’s worth noting that NASA’s 70-meter Goldstone Deep Space Network antenna in California will be pinging 2025 FA22 with radar around the time of closest approach livescience.com. This effort can produce images of the asteroid or at least measure its size and rotation. In past flybys, radar has revealed asteroids’ shapes – sometimes detecting if they have moons or unusual features. We might hear results a few days or weeks after the flyby if Goldstone succeeds in getting an echo. Keep an eye on NASA news for any cool radar snapshots or discoveries (for example, radar images in June 2024 revealed that another PHA, asteroid 2011 UL21, had its own little moonlet iflscience.com iflscience.com!). Such findings remind us that these aren’t just dots of light, but real worlds whizzing by.

Finally, if you miss the live window, don’t worry – many astrophotographers and observatories will likely share timelapse videos or images of the flyby after the fact. And the Virtual Telescope broadcast is often recorded for later viewing. In any case, no spectacular show is expected (no, the asteroid won’t suddenly flare up or be visible to the naked eye), but the knowledge that a “skyscraper-size” rock is cruising past us in the void can be a humbling and awe-inspiring thought. As you watch that tiny dot on a screen or through an eyepiece, reflect on what it represents: our solar system’s dynamic nature, the ever-present background traffic of celestial objects, and the incredible human effort that goes into finding and tracking these space rocks.

In summary, asteroid 2025 FA22’s flyby is great news: a close approach with zero danger, offering scientists a golden opportunity to hone their asteroid-tracking skills and offering the rest of us a chance to witness a bit of cosmic theater. Just a few months ago, this asteroid was a blip on risk radars – a reminder of the potential hazards out there. Now it’s a well-characterized object under watch, safely passing by as we observe with curiosity instead of fear. Each successful prediction and tracking of such an asteroid is a success story for planetary defense. So on Thursday, give a little wave (literally or figuratively) to 2025 FA22 as it zips past. It’s one more visitor we’ve greeted and sent along its way – and one more testament to how far our asteroid awareness and preparedness have come.

Sources:

The Skyscraper That Hangs from Space?! 😱 | Analemma Tower Explained
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