Huge asteroid that briefly threatened Earth may smash into moon

An huge asteroid that was briefly feared to strike Earth now has a nearly 4 per cent chance of smashing into the moon, according to new data from the James Webb Space Telescope.

The asteroid, thought to be capable of levelling a city, set a record in February for having the highest chance – 3.1 per cent – of hitting our home planet than scientists have ever measured.

Earth’s planetary defence community leapt into action and further observations quickly ruled out that the asteroid – called 2024 YR4 – would strike Earth on December 22, 2032.

But the odds that it would instead crash into Earth’s satellite have been steadily rising.

After the Webb telescope turned its powerful gaze towards the asteroid last month, the chance of a moon shot was at 3.8 per cent, Nasa said.