A newly discovered asteroid has a tiny chance of smacking Earth in 2032, space agency officials said Wednesday.
“We are not worried at all, because of this 99 percent chance it will miss," said Paul Chodas, director of NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies. “But it deserves attention.”First spotted last month by a telescope in Chile, the near-Earth asteroid — designated 2024 YR4 — is estimated to be 130 to 330 feet across.Scientists are keeping close watch on the space rock, which is currently heading away from Earth.
The asteroid came closest to Earth on Christmas Day — passing within roughly 500,000 miles of Earth, about twice the distance of the moon. It was discovered two days later. If scientists can find the space rock in images from then, they should be able to determine whether it will hit or miss the planet, he told The Associated Press. “If we don’t find that detection, the impact probability will just move slowly as we add more observations,” he said.
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