ESA’s Hera mission is two-year flight to the Didymos binary asteroid system. See its trajectory here. Credit: ESA - European Space Agency

The chance that a football field-sized asteroid capable of destroying a city will strike Earth in 2032 has fallen to 0.001 percent, the European Space Agency said on Tuesday.

The chances of asteroid 2024 YR4’s odds of colliding with Earth in 2032 have dropped to nearly zero, thanks to new observations of the space rock.

Good news for those concerned about reports of a potential asteroid impact in 2032: NASA has dramatically lowered the probability of an impact from asteroid 2024 YR4. The new assessment provides reason for optimism.

The space rock caused quite a stir after astronomers first spotted it last year on a trajectory bringing it uncomfortably close to Earth in 2032.

YR4 was recently upgraded to a level three threat on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale, but its chances of impact are now nearly zero.

YR4, once considered a potential threat to Earth, is now unlikely to hit in 2032, as new data and observations significantly reduce the impact risk, easing fears of a massive asteroid impact.

Less than two months after asteroid 2024 YR4 shot to the top of the European Space Agency’s risk list of near-Earth objects, ESA now says it “no longer poses significant impact risk” and has downgraded the threat to a Level 0 from Level 3 on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale .

No, or at least not because of the 2024 YR4 asteroid. There is now a .004 percent chance it will impact Earth. Here’s NASA’s explanation of why it’s no longer considered a threat (for at least the next century, anyway):

Asteroids are left over remnants from the formation of the solar system, mostly rock, but also metallic, or icy bodies that tend to live in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Space agencies like Nasa and Esa independently monitor and track over ...

Observations from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope helped show that the expected trajectory of asteroid 2024 YR4 poses nearly zero risk of impacting Earth in 2032.

The ESA also confirmed that the asteroid's risk factor had shrunk dramatically. "The probability that asteroid 2024 YR4 might impact Earth on 22 December 2032 has dropped from 2.8% to 1.4% to 0.16 ...