Earth’s in the Clear From Menacing Asteroid in 2032—But Our Moon Might Not Be

An asteroid is headed toward a close approach to Earth on December 22, 2032. But fear not, the Webb Space Telescope just re-confirmed that asteroid 2024 YR4 has a nearly 0% probability of crashing into Earth. That said, astronomers are unable to rule out a possible impact with the Moon. The Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in Chile discovered the asteroid on December 27, 2024. Shortly after its discovery, asteroid 2024 YR4 was deemed potentially hazardous, with the odds of it striking Earth reaching nearly 3%. Those odds aren’t massive, but when it comes to the potential threat of a city-killer asteroid, ideally you want them to be closer to a zero-chance probability. On February 20, NASA removed 2024 YR4 from its naughty list after calculations showed that the asteroid had a near-zero chance of hitting Earth. Phew. The news gets even better—new observations from Webb double down on the confirmation: the asteroid poses no threat to Earth. As for the Moon, that’s ... Read full article.