![\"Illustration](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-1367810652-db30.jpg\")
\n\t\tLarger size estimates put 2024 YR4 at around the same size as Big Ben(Picture: Getty Images\/iStockphoto)<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tLarger size estimates put 2024 YR4 at around the same size as Big Ben(Picture: Getty Images\/iStockphoto)<\/p>\n
Space experts at NASA managed to briefly spot a huge \u201ccity-killer\u201d asteroid<\/a> before it disappears until 2028.<\/p>\n The\u00a02024 YR4 asteroid<\/a> has been watched closely by astronomers after it was given a 3.1% chance of hitting the Earth<\/a> in December 2023. This has since been ruled out, but experts are still trying to learn everything they can about the asteroid.<\/p>\n The huge rock is around <\/a>130-300 feet across, according to NASA estimates. This range in size would have a varying impact on the Earth if it were to hit, but a large asteroid of around 300 feet could cause \u2018severe damage\u2019 and potentially collapse \u2018residential structures across a city and [shatter] windows across larger regions\u2019.<\/p>\n A smaller 2024 YR4 would more likely \u2018shatter windows or cause minor structural damage across a city\u2019 if it were to impact the Earth.<\/p>\n \t\t Some estimates put the impact of 2024 YR4 as being akin to 15,000,000 tons of TNT.<\/p>\n If it were to hit Earth, the energy released would be 100 times more powerful than the \u2018little boy\u2019 atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.<\/p>\n A more chilling prediction by Dr David Rankin, operations engineer for the University of Arizona\u2019s Catalina Sky Survey, warned on Bluesky there is roughly 0.3% chance of 2024 YR4 striking the moon.<\/p>\n This collision could take place at a speed of 31,000 miles per hour, unleashing 343 times the size of the nuke dropped on Hiroshima.<\/p>\n As devastating as this sounds, scientists have actually said a lunar explosion of this kind could generate a beautiful meteor shower on Earth.<\/p>\n Gareth Collins, a professor of planetary science at Imperial College London, told New Scientist<\/a>: \u2018The impact flash of vaporised rock would be visible from Earth, even in the daytime.\u2019<\/p>\n Larger size estimates put 2024 YR4 at around the same size as Big Ben or the Statue of Liberty.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/SEI_246073517-bcd5.jpg\")
\n\t\tThe asteroid 2024 YR4 is expected to disappear again in mid-April (Picture: European Space Agency via AP)<\/p>\n