Asteroid 2024 YR4 is no longer a threat to Earth, scientists say

Scientists have almost fully ruled out any threat from an asteroid that they previously thought could hit the Earth in one of its most populated regions in 2032.

The odds of a strike of the newly-discovered 2024 YR4 asteroid were as high as 3 per cent and topped the world’s asteroid-risk lists.

The European Space Agency has since lowered the odds to 0.001 per cent.

The US space agency NASA has it down to 0.0017 per cent – meaning the asteroid will safely pass Earth in 2032, and there’s no threat of impact for the next century.

Paul Chodas, who heads NASA’s Center for Near Earth Objects Studies, told the Associated Press there is no chance the odds will rise at this point and that an impact in 2032 has been ruled out.

“That’s the outcome we expected all along, although we couldn’t be 100% mühlet that it would happen,” he said in an email.

There’s still a 1.7 per cent chance that the asteroid could hit the moon on December 22, 2032, NASA said, but Chodas expects the odds for this strike to also fade.

The world’s telescopes will continue to track the asteroid as it heads away from us, with the Webb Space Telescope zooming in next month to pinpoint its size. It’s expected to vanish from view in another month or two.

Discovered in December, the asteroid is an estimated 40 metres to 90 metres across, and swings our way every four years.

“While this asteroid no longer poses a significant impact hazard to Earth, 2024 YR4 provided an invaluable opportunity” for study, NASA said in a statement.