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.

Keep your eye on the ball” is a motto for many athletes—and for astronomers trying to find Earth-threatening space rocks

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

Scientists recently doubled the chances that Asteroid 2024 YR4 will hit Earth in 2032. While earlier estimates said the chance of the giant space rock- roughly the size of Big Ben- had around a one per cent chance of collision with our planet, this has now risen to 2.3 per cent, or around one in 43.