Fastest Asteroid Flybys Closer Than the Moon 2025
Key Findings
🏆
2025 WM20 leads in Speed relative to Earth at closest approach (km/s) with 28.36 in 2025.
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Average Speed relative to Earth at closest approach (km/s) in 2025: 22.53 · median: 21.16.
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Gap in 2025: 2025 WM20 is 1.4× larger than 2025 FK3.
About This Dataset
Fastest Asteroid Flybys Closer Than the Moon 2025
What this chart shows: the 15 fastest of the 189 asteroids that passed closer to Earth than the Moon in 2025, ranked by their speed relative to Earth at the moment of closest approach, in kilometres per second.
How the data is collected: the speeds come from NASA JPL's close-approach data, which gives each flyby's velocity relative to Earth at close approach (V relative). CNEOS computes these values from each asteroid's calculated orbit. The list is limited to approaches within one lunar distance, about 384,000 km.
Background: CNEOS notes that, in general, a smaller absolute magnitude (H) implies a larger asteroid; all of these objects are small, with H values well above 22, the brightness NASA associates with an asteroid of about 140 metres.
Limits: speed is measured relative to Earth, not to the Sun. Only discovered asteroids are included, and the ranking covers flybys within one lunar distance only; faster objects that passed further away are not in the chart.
How the data is collected: the speeds come from NASA JPL's close-approach data, which gives each flyby's velocity relative to Earth at close approach (V relative). CNEOS computes these values from each asteroid's calculated orbit. The list is limited to approaches within one lunar distance, about 384,000 km.
Background: CNEOS notes that, in general, a smaller absolute magnitude (H) implies a larger asteroid; all of these objects are small, with H values well above 22, the brightness NASA associates with an asteroid of about 140 metres.
Limits: speed is measured relative to Earth, not to the Sun. Only discovered asteroids are included, and the ranking covers flybys within one lunar distance only; faster objects that passed further away are not in the chart.
Analysis
The fastest flyby closer than the Moon in 2025 was 2025 WM20, which passed Earth on 24 November 2025 at 28.4 km/s relative to Earth, at a distance of 164,083 km. That is 2.7 times the median speed of all 189 close flybys, 10.5 km/s. 2025 UV6 (26.7 km/s) and 2025 FX2 (25.1 km/s) were next. 18 of the year's close flybys exceeded 20 km/s. The slowest of the 15 fastest still moved at 20.5 km/s, which would cover the distance from Earth to the Moon in about 5.2 hours.
Data Insights
Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart
Methodology & source
- Data source
- NASA JPL Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS)
- Coverage
- 15 entities · 2025 · 15 observations
- Measure
- Speed relative to Earth at closest approach (km/s)
- Last updated
- 16 September 2026
- Compiled by
- The ANYSTAT team, from the source above
How the figures are calculated
- Values use the measure and unit named on this page. Consult the dataset description and cited source for coverage, definitions and any unit conversions. Displayed values may be rounded for readability.
- Entities are ranked highest-first on their value in 2025.
An article using this data
189 Asteroids Passed Closer Than the Moon in 2025. The Nearest Was Less Than a Metre Across.
NASA's close-approach data lists 189 asteroids that came within one lunar distance of Earth in 2025. The closest passed about 230 km above the surface. What the...
Data Sources & References
All external sources cited in this dataset
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