Hooray! Looks like we won’t all die in 2032 -.

We recently reported on the asteroid that is headed for Earth. Known as Asteroid 2024 YR4, the massive space rock was initially thought to be on a collision course for our planet, with estimates rising to a 2.8% chance of impact in mid-February. This made it the most likely asteroid in more than 20 years, and many began ringing alarm bells and taking to the streets to shout doomsday scenarios. As usual, however, it seems we all got a little too excited, as new data from NASA suggests that Asteroid 2024 YR4 will not hit Earth, or rather that it is incredibly unlikely to do so.

The space agency has gone to X to state that the impact probability of Asteroid 2024 YR4 has dropped to just 0.004%, which is actually not a big surprise, since the ESA pretty much stated that this would happen recently as well.

NASA states: “The impact probability of asteroid 2024 YR4 has dropped to 0.004%. It is expected to safely pass Earth in 2032.”

On how NASA came to this conclusion, it adds: “We track asteroids using telescopes around the world and refine their orbits with precise measurements. Then we model their future paths using computer simulations to account for things like gravitational influences. Through these simulations, we are able to calculate impact probabilities with extreme precision.”

So it looks like we can all get back to planning for 2033 and beyond! Not that we shouldn’t have done so in the first place, since the asteroid was considered large enough to be a problem for a single city at worst.