The IAWN memo does not call for any urgent action, but it does urge the need for more observations of the asteroid so its path can be better refined. The goal is to have as complete a picture as possible of YR4's trajectory before the next close approach. "The most important thing is getting good data on it," said Fast. The Planetary Society will host an online Q&A on January 31 about the near-Earth object with Betts, Fast, and astronomer Carrie Nugent. Watch this discussion.Stop watching this discussion. (0) comments Welcome to the discussion. Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated. Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything. Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person. Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts. Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.

The power of a 'city-killer' asteroid may hit Earth — how worried should we be?

A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the Sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles.

It may sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than one percent chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years.

Such an impact has the potential for city-level devastation, depending on where it strikes.

Scientists aren't panicking yet, but they are watching closely.

"At this point, it's 'Let's pay a lot of attention, let's get as many assets as we can observing it,'" Bruce Betts, chief scientist of The Planetary Society, told Agence France-Presse. "Rare finding"

Dubbed 2024 YR4, the asteroid was first spotted on December 27, 2024, by the El Sauce Observatory in Chile. Based on its brightness, astronomers estimate it is between 130 and 300 feet (40–90 meters) wide.

By New Year's Eve, it had landed on the desk of Kelly Fast, acting planetary defense officer at US space agency NASA, as an object of concern.

"You get observations, they drop off again. This one looked like it had the potential to stick around," she told AFP.

The risk assessment kept climbing, and on January 29, the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN), a global planetary defense collaboration, issued a memo.

According to the latest calculations from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, there is a 1.6 percent chance the asteroid will strike Earth on December 22, 2032.

If it does hit, possible impact sites include over the eastern Pacific Ocean, northern South America, the Atlantic Ocean, Africa, the Arabian Sea, and South Asia, the IAWN memo states.

2024 YR4 follows a highly elliptical, four-year orbit, swinging through the inner planets before shooting past Mars and out toward Jupiter. For now, it's zooming away from Earth — its next close pass won't come until 2028

"The odds are very good that not only will this not hit Earth, but at some point in the next months to few years, that probability will go to zero," said Betts

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