NASA Warns of Increased Risk: 'City-Killer' Asteroid Threatens Major Cities Like Mumbai, Kolkata

While the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) continues to monitor the course of a newly discovered NASA asteroid 2024 YR4 and increases the likelihood of it colliding with earth by 3.1 percent.

Despite the asteroid risk corridor of it taking place, NASA data shows that the risk corridor for the asteroid runs over the entire eastern Pacific Ocean, south America, the Arabian Sea, northern south America, Africa, South Asia and the Atlantic Ocean. This leaves the world's top populous seven cities, namely Mumbai, Kolkata, Dhaka, Bogota, Abidjan, Lagos and Khartoum at risk.

According to International Asteroid Warning Network reports that the cities of these cities together have a population of more than 110 million.

According to NASA their website, asteroid observation made by ground-based telescopes that are part of the International Asteroid Warning Network will continue as long as the asteroid remains still visible until April. After that, it will become too faint to see until June 2028.

In the past, this year the American Space Agency had forecasted the possibility of an asteroid striking the earth around 2.3 percent.

In contrast to the six-mile-wide asteroid which eliminated dinosaurs 66 million years ago 2024 YR4 is classified" city killer asteroid,," meaning it's not an asteroid that could threaten the planet but is still able to cause the most devastating damage to cities.

Asteroid '2024 YR4' Identified in December Last Year

Asteroid 2024 YR4 first recorded on the 27th of December 2024 at the Minor Planet Center- the International clearing house for small body positions - by the funding provided by NASA to Asteroid Terrestrial impact Last Alert System station in Chile.

The asteroid drew the attention of astronomers when it was listed in the NASA automated Sentry risk list on December 31st 2024.