An asteroid becomes a meteorite when it travels to Earth from a nearby orbit or the outer solar system and collides with Earth, according to the United States Geological Survey. Small asteroids typically burn up in the upper atmosphere before ever reaching Earth’s surface to become meteorites.

YR4 has a roughly 2 percent chance of hitting Earth in 2032, and “is large enough to cause localized damage,” NASA says.

The $10 billion orbiting observatory will give astronomers a better sense of the near-Earth asteroid 2024 YR4's size and position.