NASA confirms, an asteroid is getting closer and closer to Earth - scientists warn of the damage it could cause

The probability that asteroid 2024 YR4 will hit Earth in 2032 has doubled to 2.3 percent, NASA has announced.

The space agency had previously put the risk at about 1 percent.

Although the risk is still quite low, scientists continue to closely monitor the asteroid's trajectory.

2024 YR4 will remain visible until April.

In the meantime, the asteroid will continue to be monitored by ground-based telescopes from the International Asteroid Warning Network.

After April, the asteroid will become very difficult to observe until June 2028.

The James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled to determine the asteroid's exact size in March 2025 to clarify collision predictions.

Currently, the diameter of the space rock is estimated at 40 to 90 meters, writes € news, the Telegraph reports.

While the threat posed was determined as a 3 on the Turin scale. A rating of 3 means that this asteroid is likely to hit Earth, but will have a localized impact rather than global damage.

It is also possible that the probability of asteroid impacts in this category could be reset to zero as a result of more accurate calculations.

If the data scientists have collected about 2024 YR4 is accurate, the asteroid is the same size as the Tunguska that hit Earth in 1908.

Therefore, the impact effect can be felt at a local level.

Read too Football field-sized asteroid headed for Earth - nuclear weapons to be sent into space to deflect it

However, the asteroid has the potential to cause serious damage at the impact site.

Otherwise, Tunguska is the largest asteroid impact recorded in human history.

But there have been other, larger ones in prehistoric times. The most notable of these is Chicxulub, which occurred about 66 million years ago and ended the reign of the dinosaurs by wiping out two-thirds of life on Earth.

Tunguska wasn't that big of an impact. Bursting into the atmosphere over a sparsely populated region of Russia, the asteroid released the same amount of energy as the explosion of 50 million tons of TNT.

According to Space.com, the impact flattened an estimated 80 million trees over an area of ​​2,150 square kilometers, killing three people.

"If 2024 YT4 is made of rocky material, it could explode in the air and reach the ground as a fireball," said David Rankin, an engineer at the Catalina Sky Survey.

"If it's made of iron, it will pierce the atmosphere with little trouble and form an impact crater. So it's critical to understand not only its orbit, but also its composition and size," he added.

It is reported that Rankin and astronomers around the world will continue to collect as much information as possible about asteroid 2024 YT4 before 2032. /Telegraph/