Scientists emphasize that this case highlights the importance of continuous asteroid tracking. Advanced monitoring helps refine predictions and ensures that potential threats are identified and ruled out long before they become a real concern.

In reality, even as the near-Earth asteroid 2024 YR4 was moving away, ground-based telescopes were able to gather enough observations to get a better handle on its orbit. So we can safely take a deep breath and return to the more pressing existential problems posed by threats on this planet rather than off-world.