NASA's Webb telescope captures photos of the asteroid that won't hit Earth in 2032

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The Webb Space Telescope has captured pictures of the asteroid that caused a disturbance earlier this twelvemonth erstwhile it topped Earth’s deed list.

Discovered precocious past year, the asteroid 2024 YR4 was predicted astatine 1 constituent to person a 3% accidental of smacking Earth successful 2032. Additional observations prompted scientists to trim the menace to virtually zero, wherever it remains. But there's a flimsy accidental it could deed the satellite then. The asteroid swings our mode each 4 years.

NASA and the European Space Agency released the photos — showing the asteroid arsenic a fuzzy dot — connected Wednesday. Webb corroborate the asteroid is astir 200 feet (60 meters) across, oregon astir the tallness of a 15-story building, according to the 2 abstraction agencies. It’s the smallest entity ever observed by the observatory, the biggest and astir almighty ever sent into space.

Johns Hopkins University astronomer Andrew Rivkin said the observations by Webb served arsenic “invaluable” signifier for different asteroids that whitethorn endanger america down the road. Ground telescopes besides person tracked this peculiar abstraction stone implicit the past fewer months.

All this “gives america a model to recognize what different objects the size of 2024 YR4 are like, including the adjacent 1 that mightiness beryllium heading our way,” Rivkin, who helped with the observations, said successful a statement.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives enactment from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely liable for each content.

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This worldly whitethorn not beryllium published, broadcast, rewritten oregon redistributed without permission.