The asteroid 2024 YR4, discovered in December, has a 2.3% chance of hitting the Earth when it arrives in the planet’s vicinity on Dec. 22, 2032, NASA said last week.

The space rock is estimated to be about 150 to 300 feet wide. 

The NASA James Webb Space Telescope will be observing it next month to get a better read on how big it actually is, while telescopes on the ground will be looking at it through April, NASA said.

After that, 2024 YR4 will not be visible to ground telescopes until 2028.

At first, NASA thought that the asteroid had only a 1.2% chance of hitting Earth according to NBC News, but then revised their prediction upward. It is uncommon for a rock of 2024 YR4’s projected size to have this much of a chance of impact, according to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies.

In the unlikely event that 2024 YR4 does collide with Earth, it’ll hit the ground going about 38,000 mph, CNEOS said.

It is too early to predict where the asteroid might hit if it does, the European Space Agency said. Space rocks that size hit Earth every few millennia on average and cause significant damage to the region near the impact site.

In 1908, an asteroid about 160-200 feet wide exploded in the air above the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Siberia. While it did not make impact, the force of the blast toppled 80 million trees across an area 830 square miles wide according to NASA.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.