June 19 (UPI) — NASA has announced that an asteroid about 200 feet in diameter is now slightly more likely to crash into the moon.
According to the newest data collected, NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has refined the expected course for Asteroid 2024 YR4 and has given it an increased 4.3% probability of striking the moon on Dec. 22, 2032.
The original likelihood was at 3.8% probability.
The space rock is too far off in space to be detected with ground telescopes, but the James Webb Space Telescope, which orbits the sun, was able to take a new look at the space rock earlier this month before it was obscured from view. It was that opportunity that provided the data that led to the changed forecast.
Due to YR4’s solar orbit, NASA won’t be able to view it again until it comes back around the sun in 2028.
According to a research paper submitted to the American Astronomical Society journals and published Monday, should the asteroid hit the moon, it could cause a crater as large as around 3,200 feet and release 6.5 megatons of energy.
As much as 220 million pounds of lunar material could be released by such an impact, and then as much as 10% of that ejecta could fall to Earth a few days later, so “meteorites are unlikely, though not impossible” according to the paper, but it would create an “eye-catching” meteor shower.
However, any moon bits that do come toward the Earth also could increase the meteoroid impact exposure faced by satellites in near-Earth orbit for as long as a decade.
