Amid the uncertainty of a cosmic threat, NASA has offered some relief. The agency announced that the chances of asteroid 2024 YR4 impacting Earth in 2032 has dropped from 3.1% to 1.5% in just a day. In a blog post, NASA said that the drop was recorded on February 19 when ground-based telescopes were able to make better observations of the dark sky. The uncertainty was high earlier because the full Moon had limited visibility, making objects like asteroids too faint to observe.

"NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California has incorporated the new observations reported to the Minor Planet Center and on Feb. 18, updated the impact probability of asteroid 2024 YR4 in 2032 to 3.1%," the agency said adding it is the highest impact probability ever recorded.

"However, on Wednesday, Feb. 19, new data collected overnight reduced the impact probability to 1.5%," it added.

The asteroid was detected in 2024 and is estimated to be around 40-90 metres wide. It will make the close pass to Earth on December 22, 2032 but current orbital calculations show slight chance of impact with Earth. NASA says, there's also about 0.8% chance it might strike the Moon.

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"As we continue to observe the asteroid's motion over time, the region of possible locations (on Earth) will shrink even further. For the impact probability to drop to zero, the Earth would need to fall outside of the range of potential locations of asteroid 2024 YR4 on Dec. 22, 2032," NASA said.

Astronomers expect the impact probability will continue to change as more data is gathered over the next few weeks. They will be using the James Webb Space Telescope starting next week to obtain as much data as possible before the asteroid vanishes from Earth's view before reappearing in 2028.

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(Image: NASA/ESA)