Asteroid unlikely to hit Earth

Earth had a close brush with a space object. In December, NASA (the US space agency) and the European Space Agency announced that they were carefully tracking an asteroid that had the potential to hit our planet in the year 2032. Now, however, NASA has said the risk of the space rock, called 2024 YR4, striking Earth is nearly zero. Asteroids are irregularly shaped objects that orbit the Sun and can be as small as a pebble or as big as several miles across. They are made up of ancient materials left over from when our solar system was born billions of years ago, including rock and sometimes metal or clay. Small pieces of asteroids that hit Earth are known as meteorites (see box at right). Scientists keep an eye…

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The Week Junior US (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 256

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