near-Earth asteroid
2024 YR4
A small near-Earth asteroid that briefly topped impact-risk lists in early 2025 before follow-up observations ruled out a 2032 collision.
- Distance from Earth today
- 773.0 million km5.167 AU · light: 42 min 58 s
- Distance from the Sun today
- 625.0 million km4.178 AU
- As of
- 3 November 2026position from NASA/JPL orbital elements
Where it is today
Top view of the plane of Earth’s orbit, compressed distance scale. Open on the big map with the time slider →
Facts
- Semi-major axis
- 2.516 AU (376.4 million km)
- Perihelion
- 0.852 AU
- Aphelion
- 4.180 AU
- Orbital period
- 3.99 years
- Orbital eccentricity
- 0.661
- Orbital inclination
- 3.4°
- Last perihelion
- 22 November 2024
- Next perihelion
- 19 November 2028
- Minimum orbit distance from Earth’s orbit (MOID)
- 0.003 AU (411,100 km)
Source of the figures: JPL Small-Body Database (public domain).
Discovery: 2024 – ATLAS survey (Río Hurtado, Chile)
Description
2024 YR4 is a small near-Earth asteroid discovered at the end of December 2024 by the ATLAS survey telescope in Chile. Early orbit calculations gave it a chance of hitting Earth in December 2032 high enough to place it at the top of impact-risk lists and to trigger formal notifications by the International Asteroid Warning Network. As astronomers around the world gathered more observations in early 2025, the uncertainty in its orbit shrank and an Earth impact was ruled out. The James Webb Space Telescope also observed it to measure its size more accurately.