Asteroid 2024 YR4 may be a dud, but we will soon find many more threats
In reality, even as the near-Earth asteroid 2024 YR4 was moving away, ground-based telescopes were able to gather enough observations to get a better handle on its orbit. So we can safely take a deep breath and return to the more pressing existential problems posed by threats on this planet, rather than off-world.
Asteroid 2024 YR4 no longer poses significant threat to Earth in 2032, NASA's latest analysis determines
YR4 asteroid, which is nearly the size of a football field, now has roughly a 0.004% chance of hitting Earth in about eight years, according to the space agency's latest calculations. The Center for Near-Earth Object Studies previously projected a 3% chance of the asteroid striking our planet before lowering the chance to 0.
NASA, NEO Surveyor and asteroid
Earth, asteroid and While YR4
With the new observations, NASA has warned that there is around a 1% chance that the asteroid could impact the moon. That ...
An asteroid becomes a meteorite when it travels to Earth from a nearby orbit or the outer solar system and collides with ...
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