A telescope in Río Hurtado, Chile, has picked a new asteroid out of the night sky. The NASA-funded ATLAS survey reported the object today, and it now has the wonderfully compact name 2024 YR4.
The discovery came only two days after the asteroid made its closest pass by Earth. That timing makes this a little like noticing a cyclist just after they have zipped past: astronomers can see where YR4 is going, but they will need more observations to reconstruct its route and work out where that road leads years from now.
This is exactly what ATLAS is built to do. Its telescopes repeatedly photograph the sky, looking for dots that move between frames. Most turn out to be harmless neighbors traveling through the solar system, but every new object gets measured and checked. For now, YR4 is a faint newcomer with a still-blurry itinerary—and a worldwide network of asteroid watchers is beginning the follow-up.