Representational image of an asteroid hitting Earth
A large asteroid, 535844 (2015 BY310), will pass the Planet Earth at a distance of about 3.7 million kilometers. Moving at 28,300 kilometers per hour, it presents no immediate danger, but NASA is closely monitoring it with advanced tracking systems for future safety.
“Latest calculations conclude that Asteroid 2024 YR4 now poses no significant threat to the Planet Earth in 2032 and beyond. The risk of near-Earth asteroid 2024 YR4 has significantly been lowered as an impact threat to Earth for the foreseeable future,” NASA said.
Initially, asteroid 2024 YR4 had a small, but notable chance of impacting the Earth in 2032. However, as more observations were submitted to the Minor Planet Center, experts at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory refined its trajectory models. They now estimate the impact probability for December 22, 2032, at just 0.004 percent, and concluded that the asteroid poses no significant threat to Earth for at least the next century.
“The latest observations have further reduced the uncertainty of its future trajectory, and the range of possible locations the asteroid could be on December 22, 2032, has moved farther away from the Earth,” the US aeronautics and space administration stated.
Worth mentioning, Asteroid 2024 YR4, a gigantic space rock detected in December 2024, initially raised concerns with a 3.1% chance of Earth impact in 2032. Earlier, NASA projections flagged seven Indian states including Odisha, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Northern Telangana, and Southern Madhya Pradesh as potential risk zones.
Travelling at 64,373 km/h, its collision could have released energy equivalent to 8 megatons of TNT, over 500 times stronger than the Hiroshima atomic bomb. A direct hit threatened city-level devastation, fires, or tsunamis if it struck oceans. Further, recent asteroid impacts underscore the catastrophic potential of such events.