Building-sized asteroid has a small chance of hitting Earth in 2032
Observations of the Near Earth Asteroid 2024 YR4 carried out with ESO’s Very Large Telescope in January 2025
ESO/O. Hainaut et al.
An asteroid up to 100 metres wide has a 1-in-83 chance of impacting Earth on 22 December 2032. That risk of impact is enough to have triggered global planetary defence response procedures for the first time.
“This is a historic moment,” says Richard Moissl at the European Space Agency (ESA).
The asteroid, dubbed 2024 YR4, was first detected on 27 December 2024 by an automated telescope…
