The odds of the asteroid 2024 YR4 impacting Earth in 2032 have increased to 1 in 43. Despite this, you still shouldn't worry about the potential impact of this asteroid.
That's because experts expected the impact probability of this asteroid, which sits at the top of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies Sentry asteroid risk list, to increase. They also expect the chance of an impact to fall dramatically in the near future when we know more about its orbit.
Asteroid hunter David Rankin first "precovered" (short for pre-discovery recovery) asteroid 2024 YR4 in data from the Catalina Sky Survey, meaning he was able to find images of the space rock in archival data that was gathered prior to its official discovery. Space.com reached out to Rankin to explain why the changing odds are all part of the journey to better understand this asteroid.
