NASA says asteroid 2024 YR4 size of a 10-story building; increases chances of moon impact
April 3 (UPI) -- NASA said that an asteroid previously believed to be destined for Earth is the size of a 10-story building and is now more likely to make impact with the moon.
Designated as near-Earth asteroid 2024 YR4, both NASA observers and members of the worldwide planetary defense community felt at first that the object, said to be 174-220 feet in size, might hit the Earth in 2032.
Those same people have now decided it likely won't strike the Earth.
"While earlier in the year asteroid 2024 YR4 posed a potential future impact threat to Earth in 2032, by the end of February," the agency had since lowered "the risk of Earth impact" to "near-zero."
However, the team at NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory also say that they "have updated 2024 YR4's chance of impacting the moon," in 2032, "from 1.7% as of late February to 3.8%," based on observations taken from both NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and from ground-based telescopes."
They also say about the object that "In the small chance that the asteroid was to impact, it would not alter the moon's orbit."
NASA's experts also think that by mid-April, "asteroid 2024 YR4 will be too far and faint to be observed by ground-based telescopes," but the Webb telescope will be able to start to observe the asteroid again in May.
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