The Webb Space Telescope has captured pictures of the asteroid that caused a stir earlier this year when it topped Earth’s hit list.
Discovered late last year, the asteroid 2024 YR4 was predicted at one point to have a 3% chance of smacking Earth in 2032. Additional observations prompted scientists to reduce the threat to virtually zero, where it remains. But there's a slight chance it could hit the moon then. The asteroid swings our way every four years.
NASA and the European Space Agency released the photos — showing the asteroid as a fuzzy dot — on Wednesday. Webb confirm the asteroid is nearly 200 feet (60 meters) across, or about the height of a 15-story building, according to the two space agencies. It’s the smallest object ever observed by the observatory, the biggest and most powerful ever sent into space.
Johns Hopkins University astronomer Andrew Rivkin said the observations by Webb served as “invaluable” practice for other asteroids that may threaten us down the road. Ground telescopes also have tracked this particular space rock over the past few months.
All this “gives us a window to understand what other objects the size of 2024 YR4 are like, including the next one that might be heading our way,” Rivkin, who helped with the observations, said in a statement.
The findings could help scientists understand how the solar system formed and how life started on Earth.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
