Experts say 'city killer' asteroid will miss Earth, but could still hit moon

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Once declared to be on a collision course with Earth, an asteroid dubbed a “city killer” is now expected to miss the planet.

The moon, however, might not be spared.

Asteroid 2024 YR4 was first detected in December 2024. Experts believed there was a 3% chance it would hit the Earth in 2032, but there’s now a near-zero chance of that happening, NASA wrote in a recent update.

Concerns about the so-called city killer were high earlier this year.

Astronomer Andrew Rivkin conducted a five-hour observation of the space rock and found it might make impact on the moon, the New York Post reported.

There’s a 3.8% chance the asteroid, about the size of a football field, will hit the moon on Dec. 22, 2032, up from 1.7% in late February, based on data collected using the James Webb Space Telescope.

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There is a 96.2% chance the asteroid will miss entirely; however, if it were to make contact with the moon, it wouldn’t alter the moon’s orbit, experts at NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies said.

“Part of our motivation to continue observing this asteroid specifically is to figure out, is that number gonna go up or is it also going to go to zero,” Rivkin said.

Previous reports regarding the asteroid’s size were inaccurate, the Post reported, citing the New Scientist, adding the correct measurement is 60 metres or so.

Scientists will study the asteroid with the Webb telescope again in May. After that, the giant space rock will disappear into the outer solar system for the next several years.