Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, M. Micheli (ESA NEOCC)

That menacing meanie of a space rock — Asteroid 2024 YR4 — was identified last year as the most dangerous asteroid discovered in the last 20 years.

An early and intense international observation campaign reduced the risk of this asteroid impacting the Earth as zero. However, a 4% impact probability remained that the object might slam into Earth’s Moon on December 22, 2032.

However, astronomers have now been able to rule out any chance that the asteroid would impact our Moon.

Safe passage

NIRCam onboard NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope was developed by a team at the University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center. NIRCam is seen in a cleanroom for testing pre-launch at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center.
Inage credit: Lockheed Martin

According to the European Space Agency’s Near-earth Objects Coordination Center (NEOCC), new observations of Asteroid 2024 YR4 have been obtained using the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope.

The finding: the asteroid will safely pass the Moon at a distance of more than 12,400 miles (20,000 kilometers) the NEOCC reports.