Earth Is Safe From Menacing Asteroid—but Our Moon Might Take The Hit

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An asteroid is headed toward a close approach to Earth on December 22, 2032. But fear not, the Webb Space Telescope just re-confirmed that asteroid 2024 YR4 has a nearly 0% probability of crashing into Earth. That said, astronomers are unable to rule out a possible impact with the Moon.

Phew. The news gets even better—new observations from Webb double down on the confirmation: the asteroid poses no threat to Earth. As for the Moon, that's apparently another matter.

When it was first spotted, asteroid 2024 YR4 was 515,116 miles (829,000 kilometers) away from Earth. Since then, the space rock has moved away from us, and its next close approach won't be until December 2028. Ground-based telescopes from the International Asteroid Warning Network have been tracking the asteroid, but it will be too faint to observe until June 2028, according to NASA. That's why Webb was called in for the job , measuring the asteroid's brightness across a range of infrared wavelengths to better determine its size.

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