In seven years, an asteroid as big as the Statue of Liberty is going to whiz so close to Earth that it might strike our planet. The chances are only 1 in 360, NASA says. But they keep changing, and that's worrying some who wonder whether experts' calculations can be trusted. The asteroid is called 2024 YR4. It isn't the kind of planet-killer seen in Hollywood movies, though it is big. 2024 YR4 is between 130 and 300 feet wide. But it's not nearly big enough to wipe out life on Earth. It could destroy a city, but there would be enough time for those in the impact zone to get out before the asteroid hit on December 22, 2032. The closer we get to that date, the better experts will be able to pinpoint those chances. “As more observations of the asteroid are made, the uncertainty region will continue to shrink,” The European Space Agency (ESA) said in a prepared statement. “If we reach a point at which Earth is no longer inside this region, the impact probability will quickly drop to 0.” The ESA puts that probability at under 0.2% and NASA at just under 0.3%. That's a major decline from the 3.1% probability NASA released on February 18. 2024 YR4 is listed as a level 1 risk under the Torino scale. That's a measurement of the risk of an asteroid’s collision with Earth. A zero ranking means zero risk. A 10 ranking means that a collision will definitely occur. “Eventually we will pin down the asteroid’s position to that of a single grain,” Richard Binzel told CNN. He's the scale’s creator. “Most likely that grain will not be on top of the Earth.” Reflect: What concerns or interests you about asteroids passing close to Earth?
