The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
Go to topicThank you for liking
You have already liked this page, you can only like it once!
This GIF depicts the rise and fall of the impact risk associated with asteroid 2024 YR4 in the months following its discovery. On 25 February 2025, ESA’s Planetary Defence Office assessed the risk that 2024 YR4 might impact Earth on 22 December 2032 at just 0.001%, down from as high as 2.8% just a few days beforehand. See the full news article for more information.
Description:
The red dots represent the possible locations of asteroid 2024 YR4 on 22 December 2032. The yellow dot represents its most likely location.
The uncertainty region is measured as the distance between the two most separated red dots. One Earth radius is approximately 6378 km.