Asteroid YR4 spares Earth, 1.7 percent impact peril to moon

Scientists worldwide had dubbed asteroid YR 4 as a ‘city killer’ due to its estimated size that ranged between 40 meters and 90 meters.

Hyderabad: The city-leveling asteroid 2024 YR4, which was hurtling towards Earth from outer space with 3.2 percent chances of impact, has been downgraded by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Agency) to 0.004 percent and is expected to safely pass Earth in 2032. However, there is still a chance of the asteroid YR 4 to impact the moon on December 22, 2032. That probability is currently at 1.7 percent.

“When first discovered, asteroid 2024 YR4 had a very small, but notable chance of impacting our planet in 2032. As observations of the asteroid continued to be submitted to the Minor Planet Center, experts at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s (JPL’s) Center for Near-Earth Object Studies were able to calculate more precise models of the asteroid’s trajectory and now have found there is no significant potential for this asteroid to impact our planet for the next century. The latest observations have further reduced the uncertainty of its future trajectory, and the range of possible locations the asteroid could be on Dec. 22, 2032, has moved farther away from the Earth,” NASA in a statement said.

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There still remains a very small chance for asteroid 2024 YR4 to impact the Moon on Dec. 22, 2032. That probability is currently 1.7 percent. NASA will continue to observe asteroid 2024 YR4 with observatories funded by its Planetary Defense Coordination Office, and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will observe the asteroid in March to further gain insights about its size for scientific purposes, NASA added.

Earlier, scientists worldwide had dubbed asteroid YR 4 as a ‘city killer’ due to its estimated size that ranged between 40 meters and 90 meters. On its impact with Earth, the asteroid would have released energy ranging from 8 to 15 megatons of TNT. In comparison, the atomic bombs dropped in Hiroshima released about 0.015 megatons. This means, asteroid YR4 was 500 times more powerful.