Astronomers have been closely monitoring asteroid 2024 YR4, a space rock that had raised concerns due to its heightened probability of impacting Earth in 2032. However, NASA announced on Monday that the threat level has significantly decreased, with the chances of the asteroid colliding with our planet dropping to nearly zero.
“I knew this was likely to go away as we collected more data,” stated Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. “I was sleeping pretty well.”
After skywatchers reported their observations of 2024 YR4 on December 27, 2024, scientists initially calculated that there was more than a 1 percent chance of the asteroid striking Earth. This was notable as it was the only large asteroid known to have such a high impact probability.
As researchers continued to gather more data on the object, the impact probability increased through January and February, reaching a peak of 3.1 percent last Tuesday. While this percentage may seem small, it was the highest probability ever recorded by NASA for an object of this size or larger.
With a size estimated to be between 130 and 300 feet wide, asteroid 2024 YR4 was large enough to potentially devastate a city. Initial trajectory assessments indicated that it could potentially impact or explode in the air over major metropolitan areas, such as Mumbai, India, and Lagos, Nigeria.
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