The European Space Agency (ESA) has revealed it is closely monitoring an asteroid the size of a football pitch that could hit the Earth in a little over seven years.
The asteroid, called 2024 YR4, is estimated to have a one in 83 chance of a direct hit, causing “severe damage to a local region”, according to ESA.
The space rock, which measures 100m by 40m, is currently at a distance of around 27 million miles and moving away from the planet. But its path will cross the Earth’s orbit on 22 December 2032.
Most likely there would be a near miss, with the asteroid passing within a few thousand miles.
The Space Mission Planning Advisory Group, which is chaired by ESA, will discuss the latest observations of the asteroid at a meeting in Vienna next week.
If the impact risk is confirmed it will make official recommendations to the United Nations and work may begin on options for a “spacecraft-based response to the potential hazard”, the agency said in a statement.
Dr Simeon Barber, a space scientist at the Open University, told Sky News: “We shouldn’t be overly worried – at least not just yet.
“That’s because our early detection systems quite often overestimate the likelihood of an impact with Earth.
“In the early stages, we can’t determine its trajectory very accurately, and so the probability of impact has to take into account this uncertainty.
“It’s likely that as our technologies for detecting Earth-bound objects improve, we may see an increasing number of alerts such as this.
“It’s important that we find the right balance between treating the threat seriously, but not over-reacting in these early stages of discovery when the trajectory is still not well-defined.”
At the time NASA administrator Bill Nelson said: “All of us have a responsibility to protect our home planet. After all, it’s the only one we have.”
Near-Earth Asteroid 2024 YR4 was first spotted by a telescope in Chile. Since the start of January, astronomers have been tracking the asteroid to gauge its size and movement.
The asteroid is expected to fade from view within the next few months as it moves further from the Earth. Increasingly powerful telescopes will be trained on the rock to gather as much data as possible on its trajectory.
Once it disappears it won’t come back into view until 2028.
How much damage would such an impact do?
The Earth takes a direct hit from an asteroid of that size only once every few thousand years.
In 1908, a slightly smaller asteroid – thought to have measured 60m across – exploded over Siberia. It flattened 80 million trees over an area of 830 square miles.
Pope Francis is in a critical condition after a “prolonged respiratory crisis” that required a high-flow of oxygen and is “suffering more than yesterday”, the Vatican has said.
In an update on Saturday evening, the Vatican said “the Holy Father’s condition continues to be critical”, adding that this morning he “presented with a prolonged asthmatic respiratory crisis” which required the application of high-flow oxygen.
He also had blood transfusions after tests revealed thrombocytopenia, which is associated with anemia.
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2:43
Pope Francis ‘not out of danger’
“The Holy Father continues to be vigilant and spent the day in an armchair even though he was suffering more than yesterday. At the moment the prognosis is reserved,” the Vatican’s statement said.
In an update earlier on Saturday morning – the shortest since Francis was admitted to hospital on 14 February – the Vatican said he will not lead Sunday prayers for the second week running, adding: “The Pope rested well.”
Francis is likely to prepare a written homily for someone else to read at Sunday’s Angelus.
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Millions of people around the world have been concerned about the Pope’s increasingly frail health – and his condition has given rise to speculation over a possible resignation, which the Vatican has not commented on.
Doctors on Friday said he was “not out of danger” and was expected to remain at Rome’s Gemelli hospital for at least another week.
Sergio Alfieri, the chief of the pontiff’s medical team, said: “Is he out of danger? No. But if the question is ‘is he in danger of death’, the answer is ‘no’.”
Image: Sergio Alfieri (R) said Pope Francis was a ‘fragile patient’ but was in ‘good spirits’. Pic: AP
He said Francis was affected by seasonal flu before being taken to hospital and that, “due to his challenging duties”, he had suffered fatigue.
He is also fighting a multipronged infection of bacteria and viruses in the respiratory tract.
The doctors warned that while he did not have sepsis – where germs enter the bloodstream – there was always a risk the infection could spread in his body, and they said that was the biggest concern.
Sepsis is a complication of an infection that can lead to organ failure and death.
Pope Francis has a history of respiratory illness, having lost part of one of his lungs to pleurisy as a young man. He had an acute case of pneumonia in 2023.
One person has been killed and two police officers seriously injured in a knife attack in eastern France.
A man attacked people in Mulhouse, near the German border, at around 4pm on Saturday.
Prosecutors said a 37-year-old Algerian had been arrested and the person who died was a civilian who tried to intervene.
“Horror has just gripped our city,” mayor Michele Lutz said on Facebook.
The man shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest”) as he attacked the police officers, prosecutors added.
President Macron told BFMTV it was “beyond doubt” it was an “Islamist terrorist act”. He said the interior minister was heading to Mulhouse and would speak later.
The attacker is said to have been at a police station – where he was due to sign a document for his detention – but refused and ran into the market where he launched the attack.
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One police officer was stabbed in the neck and another in the chest, according to French media. Three other police sustained very minor injuries.
Sir Keir Starmer and Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this is a “significant moment” for European security amid the continued fallout between the Ukrainian leader and Donald Trump.
In a phone call this morning, the prime minister reiterated the UK’s “ironclad support” for Ukraine and said he would discuss safeguarding Kyiv’s sovereignty with the US president.
Sir Keir also spoke with the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen this morning, in which they agreed that Europe must “step up” for the good of collective security on the continent.
Image: Starmer and Zelenskyy last month. Pic: Reuters
Sir Keir will meet Mr Trump in the coming days for what will be a critical moment in the fragile relations between America and Europe after the US leader launched an extraordinary verbal attack on Mr Zelenskyy.
Mr Trump labelled the Ukrainian leader a “dictator” and said the prime minister and French President Emmanuel Macron, both of whom will visit the White House next week, “haven’t done anything” to end the war.
Since Russia‘s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the UK, France and other allies have been providing Kyiv with weapons and aid.
Mr Trump has also suggested that Ukraine “started” the war.
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Starmer and Macron ‘haven’t done anything’
In a Downing Street readout of Sir Keir’s call with Mr Zelenskyy, a spokesperson said: “The prime minister began by reiterating the UK’s ironclad support for Ukraine and commitment to securing a just and enduring peace to bring an end to Russia’s illegal war.
“The leaders reflected on recent developments in the conflict, as the third anniversary of the full-scale invasion approaches, and agreed on the need to continue working together with allies to achieve peace through strength.
“They agreed that this was a significant moment for the future of Ukraine and European security at large.”
The spokesperson added: “The prime minister repeated that Ukraine must be at the heart of any negotiations to end the war and that safeguarding Ukraine’s sovereignty was essential to deter future aggression from Russia.”
Meanwhile, a Downing Street spokesperson said of Sir Keir and Ms von der Leyen’s call: “Ahead of the three-year anniversary of Russia’s barbaric illegal war, they discussed the need to secure a just and enduring peace in Ukraine, and agreed that Europe must step up for the good of collective European security.”
On Saturday afternoon, Sir Keir also spoke with Finland’s president Alexander Stubb and discussed “the need to secure enduring peace for Ukraine and bring an end to Russia’s illegal war”, a Downing Street readout said.
“The leaders agreed the need for Europe to step up support to achieve this, and the prime minister said the UK is ready to play a role in future security guarantees.”
The US president’s recent statements, which echo Russian president Vladimir Putin’s narrative, and plans to have direct negotiations with Moscow about the end of the war in Ukraine have left European allies and Ukrainian officials worried.
Mr Trump told US governors on Friday he “had very good talks with Putin” and “not such good talks with Ukraine”.
The US president also said a deal on minerals in Ukraine in exchange for weapons was close, but a source with knowledge of the negotiations told Sky News the Ukrainian president is not ready to sign and sees a “number of problematic issues” with the draft agreement.