That asteroid that had about a significant chance of hitting Earth won’t hit us after all.
As reported by the Washington Post, the 130-to-300-foot-wide asteroid, named 2024 YR4, rose to a more than 3% risk of colliding with Earth earlier this week before dropping to a 0.28% chance.
Scientists had expected the odds of impact to lessen as time went on, but the 1-in-33 odds from a few days ago had outlets like Wired asking about the real danger of the “city-killing asteroid.”
NASA, however, maintained that they expected this asteroid’s odds of impact to be essentially 0%, as no other asteroids have odds of impact above 1%.
“There have been several objects in the past that have risen on the risk list and eventually dropped off as more data have come in,” NASA said. “New observations may result in reassignment of this asteroid to 0 as more data come in. ”
If it were to hit, the most likely date is Dec. 22, 2032, according to NASA.
