Part 5/6:
Monitoring Near-Earth Asteroids
In addition to health challenges, space exploration also faces potential threats from celestial bodies. For instance, an asteroid designated 2024 YR4, roughly the size of an 18-story building, was detected last December on a collision course with Earth. Initial analyses indicated only a 1.2% chance of impact within seven years. Typically, these probabilities decrease as further observations take place; however, recent updates from NASA show that the potential for a collision has increased to 1.9%.
Notably, no other tracking asteroids currently have a higher impact probability exceeding 1%. Both NASA and the European Space Agency are actively monitoring this asteroid, and updates will continue to be made available as new data emerges.