NASA says there's higher chance Asteroid 2024 YR4 will hit the Moon
The asteroid was originally projected to hit Earth, but a moon strike is now more likely
We now have a more accurate track on Asteroid YR4
An asteroid scientists feared would cause havoc by striking the Earth in the year 2032 now has an increased likelihood of hitting the Moon. Asteroid 2024 YR4 is currently too distant to detect with telescopes from Earth, but NASA's James Webb Space Telescope collected one more observation of the asteroid before it escaped from view in its orbit around the Sun. With the additional data, experts from NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California further refined the asteroid's orbit. The Webb data improved our knowledge of where the asteroid will be on 22 December 22, 2032, by nearly 20%. As a result, the asteroid's probability of impacting the Moon has slightly increased from 3.8% to 4.3%. In the small chance that the asteroid were to impact, it would not alter the Moon's orbit. When asteroid 2024 YR4 was first discovered, the asteroid had a small chance of impacting Earth. After more observations, NASA concluded the object poses no significant impact risk to Earth in 2032 and beyond. As additional data comes in, it is normal for the impact probability to evolve. An international team led by Dr. Andy Rivkin from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, made the observations using Webb's Near-Infrared Camera in May. Asteroid 2024 YR4 is now too far away to observe with either space or ground-based telescopes. NASA expects to make further observations when its orbit around the Sun brings it back into the vicinity of Earth in 2028.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mirror
6 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Scientists spot object possibly from outside our solar system 'headed for Earth'
The European Space Agency (ESA) said it is monitoring an unidentified object alongside Russia identified only as A11pl3Z as it hurtles at astonishing speed from outside the Milky Way Scientists have detected an object they believe may have originated from another star-system - and it appears to be heading in Earth's direction. The European Space Agency (ESA) said today that its scientists have detected what could be the third-ever extragalactic object to find its way to the Milky Way. At present, the service said, the harlmess object - which has been designated A11pl3Z - is several hundred millions of miles away from Earth, where it is rounding on Jupiter. From there, it will speed in Earth's direction, but it won't reach anywhere near the planet, and is expected to instead stop by one of our closest neighbours, Mars. Officials can't say what the object is at present - it's either a rocky asteroid or icy comet, neither of which is uncommon in our galaxy - how big it is, or what shape it is. The ESA plans to make further observations to confirm exactly from whence A11pl3Z came, and its US counterparts NASA are also monitoring the situation. Astrophysicist Josep Trigo-Rodriguez of the Institute of Space Sciences near Barcelona, Spain, believes it is an interstellar object based on its odd path and extreme speed cutting through the solar system. Writing about A11pl3Z in an article for The Conversation, Dr Trigo-Rodriguez said "certain aspects of its extended appearance" could point towards the object being a comet. He wrote: "There are certain aspects of its extended appearance that could point to it being a comet. However, this will need to be confirmed in the coming weeks as it moves deeper into the solar system. He added: "On the other hand, it is normal for an object subjected to the extremely low temperatures of interstellar space for millions of years to take longer than normal to 'wake up' from its slumber." He estimates its size at roughly 25 miles (40 kilometers) across, and notes that it won't even come close to our planet. The Scout program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Center for the Study of Minor Bodies (CNEOs), has completedly ruled out any risk of a potential Earth impact. The closest it will come, the program estimates, is around 284 million kilometers (just over 176 million miles). The first confirmed interstellar visitor was in 2017. It was dubbed Oumuamua, Hawaiian for scout, in honor of the observatory in Hawaii that discovered it. Classified at first as an asteroid, the elongated Oumuamua has since showed signs of being a comet. The second object - and A11pl3Z's direct predecessor - confirmed to have strayed from another star system into our own is 21/Borisov, discovered in 2019 and believed to be a comet.
The Independent
8 hours ago
- The Independent
Astronomers track object that may have originated outside the solar system
Astronomers are monitoring an object headed our way that may have wandered over from another star system. Scientists have discovered what might be only the third known interstellar object to pass through our solar system, the European Space Agency said Wednesday. The harmless object is currently near Jupiter hundreds of millions of miles (kilometers) away and moving toward Mars, but it should get no closer to the sun than that, according to scientists. It's too soon to know whether the object, designated for now as A11pl3Z, is a rocky asteroid or a icy comet, or how big and what shape it is. More observations are needed to confirm its origins. NASA said it is monitoring the situation. Astrophysicist Josep Trigo-Rodriguez of the Institute of Space Sciences near Barcelona, Spain, believes it is an interstellar object based on its odd path and extreme speed cutting through the solar system. He estimates its size at roughly 25 miles (40 kilometers) across. The first confirmed interstellar visitor was in 2017. It was dubbed Oumuamua, Hawaiian for scout, in honor of the observatory in Hawaii that discovered it. Classified at first as an asteroid, the elongated Oumuamua has since showed signs of being a comet. The second object confirmed to have strayed from another star system into our own is 21/Borisov, discovered in 2019 and believed to be a comet. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Daily Mail
11 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Another blow for Elon Musk after Trump gives $10b to his worst nightmare
President Donald Trump is just one stroke of a pen away from handing another major blow to Elon Musk 's plans for space exploration. On Tuesday, the US Senate passed its version of the 'Big, Beautiful Bill,' a massive piece of spending and tax cut legislation, which also set aside $10 billion for NASA's Artemis program. Artemis aims to return humans to the moon and establish a permanent US presence there by the end of the decade. Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, has been a vocal opponent of continued funding for missions to the moon, repeatedly lobbying for the Trump Administration and NASA to focus on colonizing Mars. If signed into law by Trump, the allotment to NASA would primarily go to pay for the Space Launch System (SLS), which utilizes single-use rockets to send the Artemis vehicles to the moon. The SLS rockets completely fly in the face of Musk's vision for space travel, as his company mainly relies on reusable rockets during crewed missions to the International Space Station (ISS). Before their very public falling out in May, it seemed as though Musk had convinced the president to phase out SLS rockets, with Trump proposing to slash NASA's budget and replace the SLS after Artemis' third planned mission in 2027. However, the new Republican-led megabill has reprioritized the moon missions and left Musk's dream of a crewed mission to Mars out on the White House lawn. Musk, the former head of Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, has blasted both the use of billion-dollar, single-use rockets and the president's controversial spending bill as a waste of taxpayer money. 'Fundamental issue with SLS is that it's not reusable, which means that a billion-dollar rocket is blown up every launch!' the billionaire wrote on X in 2020. On June 3, Musk called the Big, Beautiful Bill a 'disgusting abomination' and urged Americans to contact their representatives to oppose it, citing how it would leave the US budget with more 'crushing' debt. Later that month, he described the Senate's draft of the spending bill as 'utterly insane and destructive' and 'political suicide' for the Republican Party. Musk also claimed that Trump signing the bill would destroy millions of jobs and harm industries of the future while favoring outdated ones. Despite his ongoing objections, the Big, Beautiful Bill will pay for the increasingly expensive disposable rockets, which NASA's Inspector General estimated will now cost as much as $2.5 billion per use. Through the 2025 fiscal year, NASA has already spent $93 billion on the Artemis program, with most of that money going towards the rockets, the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, and a 'Human Landing System' so the astronauts can reach the moon's surface. Since the start of the Artemis program in 2019, only the unmanned Artemis I test flight in 2022 has reached space. The next mission, Artemis II, is scheduled for 2026, with Artemis III to follow in 2027. NASA has not conducted a manned moon mission since 1972. However, the 'Big, Beautiful Bill' has allocated $10 billion in new funding for NASA's Artemis program Roughly $2.6 billion of the funds would be allocated to the Lunar Gateway, a planned space station that will orbit the moon and help sustain NASA's future Artemis missions. Approximately, $20 million will go to the Orion spacecraft, specifically for building the fourth crew capsule for Artemis IV in 2028 and future lunar missions after that. If Trump signs this current version of the spending bill, he'll also be reviving a program he and Musk previously looked to kill before their friendship unraveled. The new funding includes $700 million for a Mars Telecommunications Orbiter, which would support Martian core sample return missions. That project has already cost NASA billions as the agency has aimed to bring rock samples collected by the Martian rovers back to Earth to be studied. However, Trump's May 1 spending proposal for NASA slashed $6 billion from their budget, which would have paid for that research. Following the Senate's passage of the bill, that money is back in NASA's pockets. Another $1.25 billion would go to operating costs on the ISS, money that was also slashed by the president and Musk earlier this year. It's not all bad news for Musk, however, as SpaceX is still slated to receive $325 million to build a spacecraft that will help de-orbit the ISS by the end of the decade. The decommissioning of the ISS has been another of Musk's major talking points when it comes to space exploration. The head of SpaceX has even called for the de-orbiting mission to be moved up to 2027, citing safety concerns raised by a former physicist and engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In June 2024, NASA awarded SpaceX a $843 million contract to build the deorbit vehicle, or USDV, that will be used to safely guide the ISS into the Pacific Ocean by 2030. The funding for continued ISS operations runs through 2029, essentially ending Musk's dream of bringing down the station earlier. Decommissioning the ISS ahead of schedule would not have been that simple anyway, and would require an agreement from all the space station's partners, not just the approval of President Trump.
