On 27 December last year, astronomers using the ATLAS survey telescope in Chile discovered a small asteroid moving away from Earth. Follow-up observations have revealed that the asteroid, 2024 YR4, is on a path that might lead to a collision with our planet on 22 December 2032.

Global space agencies are closely monitoring a building-size space rock that has a tiny chance of hitting Earth seven years from now. Nasa and the

YR4, which was recently spotted in the cosmos with a non-zero chance of hitting Earth in the coming years, may have caused some alarm.