{"id":103429,"date":"2025-07-30T00:30:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T00:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/103429\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T00:30:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T00:30:09","slug":"potential-asteroid-impact-on-moon-in-2032-could-trigger-massive-meteor-shower-on-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/103429\/","title":{"rendered":"Potential asteroid impact on Moon in 2032 could trigger massive meteor shower on Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

What happens if an asteroid the size of a<\/a> 15-story building crashes into the Moon in 2032?<\/p>\n

While the chances of the newly discovered asteroid 2024 YR4 hitting the Moon in seven years are slim \u2013 there is currently a 96% chance it won\u2019t happen \u2013 an impact of this size would not come without consequences for the Moon, astronauts and spacecraft orbiting Earth.<\/p>\n

A new study submitted for review by scientists with the University of Western Ontario and Athabasca University in Canada took observations from the James Webb Space Telescope of asteroid 2024 YR4 and used simulations to show how much lunar debris would be ejected out into space, sending pieces of the Moon toward Earth.<\/p>\n

After its initial discovery late last year, the asteroid appeared to have a small chance of impacting Earth, warranting international attention, and jumping to the highest asteroid threat ever given on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale. By February, more ground-based observations of the asteroid helped clear the threat to Earth, but the Moon still faces a possible impact.<\/p>\n

Any lunar debris that makes it within Earth\u2019s atmosphere could create a meteor shower event over the planet. NASA<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope<\/a> helped scientists determine that the asteroid is between 175 and 220 feet in diameter.<\/p>\n

If Asteroid 2024 YR4 crashes into the Moon, it would create a crater more than half a mile in diameter (1 km), becoming the largest impact in about 5,000 years, according to the study. Current calculations show, if it happens, an impact would occur on the Southern Hemisphere.<\/p>\n

The researchers said this impact would threaten satellites in low-Earth orbit for days or up to a few months, and send a fraction of the ejecta toward Earth.<\/p>\n

The current impact corridor for 2024 YR4 (yellow) projected on a map of the Moon\u00e2s near side from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.<\/p>\n

Any lunar debris that makes it within Earth\u2019s atmosphere could create a meteor shower event over the planet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe resulting meteor shower could last a few days and be spectacular, though the number of visible meteors somewhat muted by the low entry speed of ejecta,\u201d the research team said.<\/p>\n

With more than 10,000 active satellites in low-Earth orbit and more than 25,000 pieces of space junk, researchers believe an asteroid strike to the Moon could spell trouble for satellite operators.<\/p>\n

On March 26, 2025, NASA\u00e2s James Webb Space Telescope captured images of asteroid 2024 YR4 that indicate the asteroid is about the size of a 15-story building. NASA<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the very large total exposed area for satellites by 2032, it becomes possible that hundreds to thousands of impacts from mm-sized debris ejected by a lunar impact from 2024 YR4 will be experienced across the entire satellite fleet,\u201d the study authors wrote. \u201cSuch impacts may damage satellites, but are small enough to generally not end active missions or cause breakups.\u201d<\/p>\n

The researchers say material from the Moon could be a \u201cserious hazard to moon-orbiting spacecraft\u201d such as NASA\u2019s Lunar Gateway, a planned orbiting station for astronauts, and an \u201ceven greater danger\u201d to any lunar surface operations.<\/p>\n

Asteroid 2024 YR4 has moved behind the Sun, limiting any new observations until 2028. Scientists say those new observations in a few years will help improve lunar impact predictions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What happens if an asteroid the size of a 15-story building crashes into the Moon in 2032? While…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":103430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[9603,917,49284,994,159,783,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-103429","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-asteroids","9":"tag-earth","10":"tag-meteor-showers","11":"tag-moon","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-space","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114939364845881635","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}