Scientists will preserve monitoring the asteroid, per NASA:
NASA will proceed to watch asteroid 2024 YR4 with observatories funded by its Planetary Protection Coordination Workplace, and NASA’s James Webb House Telescope will observe the asteroid in March to additional acquire insights about its dimension for scientific functions.
Whereas this asteroid not poses a major influence hazard to Earth, 2024 YR4 supplied a useful alternative for specialists at NASA and its accomplice establishments to check planetary protection science and notification processes.
The James Webb House Telescope shall be used to judge the dimensions and trajectory of 2024 YR4, as soon as in March and once more in Could. Per the ESA, it must also present a extra correct estimate of the asteroid’s dimension:
Webb is ready to research the infrared mild (warmth) that 2024 YR4 emits, relatively than the seen mild it displays. Infrared observations can supply a significantly better estimate of an asteroid’s dimension, as defined in an article not too long ago printed within the journal Nature, co-authored by members of ESA’s Planetary Defence Workplace.
Astronomers will use Webb’s MIRI instrument to get a way more exact estimate of the asteroid’s dimension. This, in flip, shall be utilized by ESA, NASA, and different organisations to extra confidently assess the hazard and decide any essential response. Observations made utilizing Webb’s NIRCam instrument will complement MIRI’s thermal information and also will present extra measurements of the asteroid’s place as soon as it’s past the attain of Earth-based telescopes.
The Earth may also have one other shut encounter with 2024 YR4 in 2028, and it’ll turn into seen to skywatchers once more. At that time, astronomers will once more reevaluate the danger and anybody Supreme Chief Musk has exiled to the moon can plan accordingly.
