NASA's "warnings" in 2023 focused on increasing global temperatures, with scientists noting a high chance of it being the hottest year on record, driven by human activity, and also tracked several potentially hazardous asteroids like 2023 BU that passed safely, emphasizing monitoring systems for space weather and Earth-crossing objects. Key warnings included rising extreme heat and strong solar flares potentially impacting technology, though no significant impact threats were identified for 2023 itself.
NASA has issued a warning about asteroid 2023 KU, a 370-foot-wide space rock traveling at over 64,000 km/h. Expected to safely pass Earth on April 11, 2025, at a distance of 1 million km, its massive size raises concerns.
A new NASA study shows that the Sun has been waking up from a period of low activity. Solar activity is known to fluctuate in cycles of 11 years, but there are also longer-term variations that can last decades. Our Sun's activity steadily decreased from the 1980s until 2008.
According to the New York Post, the 720-foot-wide asteroid named 2024 ON, will pass around 620,000 miles from our planet on September 15. While this distance might seem vast, it's remarkably close in astronomical terms - equivalent to just 2.6 times the distance between our planet and the Moon.
Asteroid 2024 YR4 is a near-Earth asteroid. When asteroid 2024 YR4 was discovered, it was estimated to have a very small chance of impacting Earth impact on Dec. 22, 2032. After more observations, NASA concluded it poses no significant impact risk to Earth in 2032 and beyond.
Although it's unlikely, asteroid could hit Earth in 2030
The massive space rock--the first object to score above zero on the Torino hazard scale, which ranks the danger of an extraterrestrial impact--has about 1 chance in 500 of colliding with Earth in 2030, astronomers estimate.
A 300m-wide asteroid will not hit the Earth in 2036, US astronomers say. It was thought there was a one-in-200,000 chance that it could strike on 13 April 2036, but revised calculations have now ruled this out. Instead, Nasa scientists said it would not get closer than 31,000km as it flies past on this date.
It also for a time had a small chance of hitting Earth in 2036. Additional observations have shown it will not hit Earth in 2029 or in 2036.
The risk of humanity extinction by giant asteroid impact is addressed. A 100 km sized asteroid impact may transform the Earth into an inhospitable planet, thus causing the extinction of many life forms including the human species.
The asteroid currently has a 1.1% chance of striking Earth on Dec. 22, 2047, according to NASA. More than a 2% chance of an asteroid strike is "uncommon," Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told ABC News in February.
About 4 to 7 billion years from now, when hydrogen fusion in the Sun's core diminishes to the point where the Sun is no longer in hydrostatic equilibrium, its core will undergo a marked increase in density and temperature which will cause its outer layers to expand, eventually transforming the Sun into a red giant.
The Earth is sometimes called “the third planet” because it is the third planet in distance away from the Sun. As you can see in the image above, Mercury is closest to the Sun, followed by Venus, then Earth and then Mars.
In 2025, the Sun reached or was near its Solar Maximum (peak activity) for Solar Cycle 25, leading to increased sunspots, powerful solar flares (like X-class flares causing radio blackouts), and geomagnetic storms, resulting in spectacular auroras but also potential disruptions to power grids and satellites, with scientists tracking events like the November 2025 solar storm as part of this heightened activity.
On April 13, 2029 (which happens to be Friday the 13th), something unsettling will happen. A decent-sized asteroid, the 1,100-foot-wide Apophis, will pass so close to Earth it'll be visible in the sky from certain places. Crucially, the giant rock will not strike our humble planet.
In recent weeks, the chances of a so-called city-killer asteroid, 2024 YR4, hitting Earth in 2032 seemed to be more and more likely. However, NASA, the European Space Agency and others have since reduced those odds to less than 1%.
Given enough warning, yes we could deflect it. As far as how much warning we would get is variable depending on if the asteroid approaches from the sunward side of earth's orbit or from the night side. But an asteroid that size would likely get detected years in advance.
The truly dangerous objects, those large enough to cause regional or global catastrophe when they hit, may appear once every few hundred thousand years. Therefore, the chance that such an object will hit us in any given year is roughly 1 in 300,000 — nothing to lose sleep over.
Still there could be some bigger asteroids out there that NASA doesn't know about. If a mile-wide asteroid hit Earth, it would strike the planet's surface at about 30,000 miles per hour (48,280 kilometers per hour). An asteroid that big traveling at that speed has the energy roughly equal to a 1 million-megaton bomb.
Observations eliminated the possibility of an impact on Earth in 2029, when it will pass the Earth at a distance of about 38,000 kilometres (23,600 mi) above the surface.
On April 13, 2029, the large asteroid Apophis (99942) will have a very close, but safe flyby of Earth, passing within 32,000 kilometers (20,000 miles) of our planet—closer than some satellites—and will be visible to the naked eye in the night sky from parts of the Eastern Hemisphere (Europe, Africa, Asia) as a bright, fast-moving point of light. This rare event offers scientists a unique opportunity to study an asteroid of its size (about 375 meters wide) up close, with missions like NASA's OSIRIS-APEX and ESA's Ramses planned to observe it.
Human activity has driven Earth's natural systems dangerously close to collapse. A new study reveals that 60% of the planet's land is now outside the safe operating zone required to maintain stable ecosystems. This alarming shift reflects accelerating environmental pressures.
An asteroid that may be as wide as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is tall will fly safely by Earth on Thursday, June 5, 2025. Bigger than 97% of asteroids, for such a large object to come close to Earth is a relatively rare event, but asteroid 424482 (2008 DG5) won't pose any threat.
# 1: Coronal Mass Ejections
Yes, this can happen to humanity on Earth… it has happened before! The very source of life for humanity is, indeed, our greatest threat.
When Apophis was discovered in 2004, it appeared the asteroid could potentially impact Earth in the coming decades. Astronomers closely tracked the asteroid, and now NASA is confident that there is no risk of Apophis impacting our planet for at least 100 years.