An asteroid previously considered a potential threat to Earth is now the size of a 10-story building and is now more likely to hit the Moon, NASA said.
NASA observers and international planetary defense experts who identified near-Earth asteroid 2024 YR4 initially believed the 174-220-foot-long object could impact Earth in 2032.
However, they have now concluded that the asteroid is unlikely to collide with our planet.
“While asteroid 2024 YR4 was considered a potential threat to Earth in 2032 earlier this year, by the end of February,” the agency had reduced the “risk of impact with Earth” to “near zero.”
However, a team from NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory also noted that they had “updated the probability of asteroid 2024 YR4 impacting the Moon” in 2032 “from 1.7% as of late February to 3.8%,” based on data from both NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and ground-based telescopes.
They also pointed out that “even if there is a small chance of an asteroid colliding with the Earth, it will not affect the orbit of the Moon.”
NASA experts also believe that by mid-April, “asteroid 2024 YR4 will become too distant and faint to be observed by ground-based telescopes,” but the Webb telescope will be able to resume its observations of the asteroid in May.
Sourse: www.upi.com
