Step
NASA will use the James Webb spatial telescope to collect essential data in the 2024 Yr4 asteroid size, which has a little chance to hit the Earth in 2032.
James Webb (JWST) spatial telescope, positioned near the Lagrange point of Earth-Sun L2, will take … [+]
The main facts
Currently there is a 2.3% chance for 2024 years that strikes the planet on December 22, 2032, according to calculations by astronomers, a figure that has increased only in recent weeks by a starter 1.3%. Calculations are expected to change with new data between now and May, the most likely scenario a ready loss.
If the 2024 Yr4 hits the Earth, it is estimated to do so somewhere on a path across the Eastern Pacific Ocean, South America, the Atlantic Ocean, Africa, the Arabian Sea and South Asia, according to the international network of asteroid warning, which NASA, who NASA, who nasa chairs. IAwn issued a warning around 2024 years on January 29, 2025.
2024 Yr4 is currently at the top of the list of object items whose orbital trajectories suggest a potential impact with the Earth in the future. It also has a value of 3 on the degree of risk of Turin’s influence, the list of asteroids of the international astronomical union approaching the Earth.
2024 Yr4 is thought to be between 130 and 300 meters (40 and 90 meters) in diameter, but this is an assumption based on how bright appears in observations so far. As well as uncertainties about its exact size – and, therefore, the damage it could do if it strikes the Earth – scientists do not yet know enough for its density or what it is done.
According to the European Space Agency, the weBB will be used to obtain a much more accurate assessment of the asteroid size. His instrument Miri will make observations in early March with a second round of observations planned for May, by that time he will be out of the reach of Earth -based optical telescopes. The asteroid will then be erased from the appearance of the Earth until June 2028.
Webb will study 2024 Yr4 for four hours in total during the director’s discretionary time “set aside for urgent observations. Observations are being squeezed between his regular scientific work after a request from an international team of astronomers.
What will the webb telescope do
Asteroids reflect the sunlight, but they also absorb it and release it as heat, which webb is specifically created to see. “Webb will get data for the full spectrum from the end of the visible all the way to the infrared, in a move with a instrument, so it will be much cleaner and easier to interpret,” Said Oliver Hainaut in the southern European Observatory, who has already noticed 2024 years using the very large telescope in Chile in an interview. “By measuring its thermal infrared, radiated and comparing it to the reflected light, you immediately get its size.” From his observations, Hainau already knows what he is not. “It’s not a snow ball, so it’s not a comet, and we can also exclude metal,” he said.
Asteroid trajectory calculation
Asteroid observation arch 2024 yr4-time time between its earliest and last observations-is short, after being discovered in late December. “To work exactly the trajectory of an asteroid, you need to spend as much time as possible by following them,” said Lord Dover, senior technical official at Bayfordbury Observatory at the University of Hertfordshire in the UK “Webb will extend that one month or beyond observations using land -based telescopes that will help us work whether to hit us, and limit its trajectory.
Why is the observation window closing
2024 Yr4 is now rapidly leaving the ground and becoming weaker with every night passing. The presence of a full moon has also been problematic. “This week and next week I can still detect the asteroid in a minute,” Hainaut said. “By the end of March, I would take some hours of observations to get only the discovery, and in early April, it would take me two nights of observation – that begins to really be on the limit of what we can do by an eight -foot telescope on the ground. “
Background
Apollo -type asteroid orbits the sun, passing near Earth only less than four years. It reached within 515,000 miles (828,800 kilometers) – about twice as much as the moon – on Christmas Day. It was discovered by the last terrestrial asteroid alarm system two days later, on December 27, 2024. The other is expected to pass near the land around December 17, 2028, when it will be much further from 4.7 million miles (7.5 million kilometers). This will only be four years before its possible impact of 2032. Radar observations will not be possible by 2032, just a few months before they could hit the Earth, making observations in the coming months of important.
Further reading