In late December astronomers using the Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope in Chile observed a new asteroid near our planet. Dubbed 2024 YR4, the object—somewhere between 40 and 100 meters in size—was spotted on December 27. The asteroid's closest approach to Earth, it turned out, had been two days earlier, when YR4 was about 800,000 kilometers from our planet, roughly twice as far away as the moon. "It was zooming right by Earth," says John Tonry, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii. Such objects are not uncommon; there are thousands of asteroids of this size or greater in our region of the solar system. But this one warranted further attention to make sure it wouldn't pose a risk to our planet in future.
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