The nearly 200-foot-wide space rock, labeled 2024 YR4, has a 1.2 percent  probability of colliding with our planet on December 22, 2032.

It has the potential to cause significant damage, especially if it lands in a densely populated area like a major city. 

Asteroid 2024 YR4, discovered last year, is about the same size as the Tunguska asteroid that caused the most explosive impact in recorded history when it shot through Earth's atmosphere in 1908, killing three people.

It exploded in the air over Siberia in what's known as an 'air burst,' and a blast equivalent to detonating 50 million tons of TNT flattened an estimated 80 million trees over 830 square miles of forest. 

On December 22, 2032, the asteroid will come within approximately 66,000 miles of our planet. 

But orbital uncertainties indicate it has a very slight chance of directly hitting Earth.

After it was discovered, asteroid 2024 YR4 immediately shot to the top of NASA's automated Sentry risk list, which ranks known Near Earth Objects (NEOs) on how likely they are to collide with our planet. 

If this asteroid does infiltrate Earth's atmosphere, it could explode in mid-air like the Tunguska asteroid.

But astronomers have also said it could remain intact during the descent and slam into the ground, creating a massive crater and decimating human communities in the impact zone. 

Fortunately, the odds that 2024 YR4 will hit our planet are low. Even in the unlikely event that it does, scientists are not certain how much damage it would cause. 

That's because the force of its impact will depend on currently unknown aspects of its composition and a more refined estimation of its size, experts say. 

'People should absolutely not worry about this yet,' Catalina Sky Survey engineer and asteroid hunter David Rankin told Space.com.

'Impact probability is still very low, and the most likely outcome will be a close approaching rock that misses us,' he said.

He added that the current 'risk corridor,' or the geographical area where the asteroid is most likely to hit, runs from South America across the Atlantic Ocean to sub-Saharan Africa.