The asteroid, dubbed 2024 YR4, has a 2.3% chance of colliding with Earth on Dec. 22, 2032, according to a NASA update on Feb. 7. This probability of impact has increased since Jan. 29 when NASA observed that the asteroid had a little over 1% chance of impacting Earth.

The $10 billion orbiting observatory will give astronomers a better sense of the near-Earth asteroid 2024 YR4's size and position.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has declared a 1.6% chance that a large asteroid would strike the Earth when on Dec. 22, 2032.