According to the latest data from James Webba’s space telescope, the 2024 YR4 asteroid has almost a four percent chance of going to a month. According to AFP and AP, TASR reports this. New Webb telescope data specified the size of the space rock at 53 to 67 meters, which is roughly the height of the 15-storey building. Previously it was from 40 to 90 meters.
According to the initial calculations, the asteroid was likely to hit our planet on 22 December 2032. The observations and calculations of the US National Aviation and Space Authority (NASA) reduced it to 1.5 percent in February. Now, after a more detailed observation, NASA has increased the chance of collision with a month to 3.8 percent. “Still there is a 96.2 % chance that the asteroid month spends“NASA said in a statement.
Richard Moissl, Head of the Planetary Defense Office of the European Space Agency (ESA), told AFP that this is responsible for their internal estimate for a collision of about four percent.
Asteroid 2024 YR4 is still the smallest object that webb’s telescope has focused. Its heat measurements suggest that “it does not have properties observed in larger asteroids”, the ESA said in a statement. “It is probably a combination of its rapid rotation and a lack of fine -grained sand on the surface,” ESA said. More information is expected when webb telescope will be able to observe the asteroid again next month.
Astronomer Andrew Rivkin of Johns Hopkins University said that the observations of Webb’s telescope served as a “invaluable” practice for other asteroids in the future. All this “gives us a window to understand what other objects of size 2024 yr4 that could be directed towards us,“He said in a statement Rivkin, who was involved in observation.
