Before you go running for the hills, the “city killer asteroid,” which is the size of a 15-story building, isn’t expected to reach us until 2032. So if we’re lucky, humanity will have wiped itself out by then.

However, if we are somehow still here hanging out, the asteroid could cause serious damage to our Moon, which would have some devastating effects for us humans on Earth.

The panic comes from a recent study published by the University of Western Ontario and Athabasca University in Canada, which used the James Webb Space Telescope to observe the potentially dangerous 2024 YR4 asteroid and to simulate its possible paths.

If the asteroid does impact the Moon, it will create a crater more than half a mile wide and will kick up enough dust to potentially disrupt roughly 10,000 low-orbiting satellites. It would also be the largest asteroid to impact the Moon in 5,000 years, which, provided we all survive, is a pretty cool thing to tell the grandkids. 

Asteroid 2024 YR4, a 60-meter-wide space rock, has a 4% chance of hitting the Moon on December 22, 2032. If it strikes, the impact would release energy equal to 6.5 megatons of TNT, forming a 1-km-wide crater and ejecting up to 100 million kg of lunar dust into space.
Video… pic.twitter.com/57mQsaaTB8

— Black Hole (@konstructivizm) July 27, 2025