Asteroid 2024 YR4 could hit one of the world’s most populated regions, new NASA data shows

 NASA has released new data that suggests that the 2024 YR4 asteroid would pose a risk to some of the most densely populated regions in the world if it were to hit Earth.

2024 YR4 could likely hit somewhere along a "risk corridor" which NASA has identified as stretching across the eastern Pacific Ocean, northern South America, the Atlantic Ocean, African, the Arabian Sea, and South Asia.

Cities on this trajectory include Bogota in Colombia, whose metropolitan area is home to over 11.6 million people, the Mumbai metropolitan area in India which has a population of 18.4 million and Dhaka in Bangladesh, home to over 23.9 million.

The US space agency ratcheted up the asteroid’s risk of hitting the planet in 2032 to a 3.1 per cent chance, making it the "highest-threat asteroid ever detected".

This is up from the more than 2.3 percent chance warning issued less than two weeks ago. 

NASA revised the risk of collision upwards after it collected more information about the asteroid’s orbit. 

The European Space Agency (ESA) estimates the chance at 2.8 per cent, which is a higher threat level than 2004’s Apophis asteroid. It was initially thought it would hit the Earth in 2029 but this theory was dismissed with further research.

The asteroid was discovered on December 27, 2024, by a NASA-funded telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile, because it had a "close approach" to the Earth on Christmas, according to NASA’s Center for NEO Studies (CNEOS). 

At the time, scientists said it was hard to predict whether the asteroid would collide with the Earth or not. 

While the exact size of the asteroid can’t be confirmed yet, scientists estimate that it’s likely between 40 to 90 m in size, at its largest estimate around the same height as New York’s State of