Overview
- NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies says asteroid 2024 YR4 will not hit Earth or the Moon after a new orbit update.
- The refined path shows a safe lunar flyby about 21,200 kilometers from the surface on December 22, 2032.
- The object, first reported by the ATLAS survey in Chile on January 27, 2025, had early impact odds of a few percent that triggered formal planetary-defense tracking.
- Two James Webb Telescope sightings in February 2026, led by Johns Hopkins APL and analyzed by JPL’s CNEOS team, closed the observation gap and removed the collision risk for the next century.
- At roughly the size of a 15‑story building, it would likely have exploded in the atmosphere if it ever reached Earth, which is why NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office funds searches and rapid follow-up for objects of this scale.