There are hundreds of thousands of microalgae species
French firm Fermentalg has been all over the planet in its search for useful microalgae.
“One of our lucky scientists got to go and climb the volcanoes in the Caribbean for example, and I have to restrain myself from collecting more every time I go home to New Zealand,” says Hywel Griffiths, chief scientific officer at Fermentalg.
There are hundreds of thousands of species of microalgae – microscopic organisms, which mostly live in water. They are essential to the aquatic food chain and also produce half the oxygen we breathe.
But for Fermantalg one particular type, Galdieria sulphuraria, has a very useful trait. It can be used to produce a pigment, suitable for use in food, called Galdieria blue.
“We grow the algae and make a lot of it under conditions which make a lot of this particular molecule – the blue,” says Mr Griffiths.
The pigment can be used for any food and drinks and Mr Griffiths expects the first products using Galdieiria blue will be on shop shelves early next year.
Galdieria blue was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May, along with Butterfly pea flower extract (also a blue colour) and calcium phosphate (white).
Fermentalg grows a microalgae that produces a blue molecule
New sources of colour for food are needed as artificial food dyes are on their way out.
In January, the FDA announced the banning of Red Dye No. 3 in food products.
In addition, the FDA is looking to phase out petroleum-based synthetic dyes such as Yellow Dye 5 and 6 by the end of next year as part of the government’s mission to “Make America Healthy Again”.
“For the last 50 years, American children have increasingly been living in a toxic soup of synthetic chemicals,” FDA commissioner Marty Makary said at a press conference in April.
Though not an outright ban, the FDA is hoping the food industry voluntarily complies to eliminate artificial food dyes by 2026.
It comes after years of pressure from parents and campaigners for the FDA to revoke approval for dyes or educate consumers more about the risks.
In recent times, many US states have made their own moves to pass laws to remove artificial food colouring dyes.
Countries differ on the restrictions they have in place. Historically, the UK and the European Union have been stricter than the US.
The EU has been phasing out artificial colourings over the last 20 years and also introducing warnings on foods with other colours.
Sensient
Sensient processes natural products and extracts the colours
So, these are good times for firms developing natural alternatives.
US-based Sensient creates natural colours by sourcing raw materials that are grown specifically for their colour content. For example, some red and purple colours are derived from carrots and potatoes.
“These crops are harvested, washed, processed into a juice, and the colour is extracted with water or other solvents,” says Paul Manning, chief executive officer at Sensient.
“The resulting colour is further processed to stabilise the concentrate and refine it to the specific shade desired by the customer.”
But the hard work will be trying to match the synthetic colour. “It must be equally vivid,” says Mr Manning.
“There are plenty of examples of brands converting to natural colours with less vivid and vibrant shades where the product does poorly in the market and customers complain about both the colour and the flavour.”
Getting a stable, bright colour also involved much work for Fermantalg.
“To our surprise we found that the process of growing the algae and the process of extracting the colour can actually have a fairly significant impact on the stability of the product at the end, even though it’s fairly heavily purified,” says Griffiths.
“But something that we’ve done upstream is having an impact on how stable it is at the end.”
Will these new colours cost more?
“They are more expensive, but in actual contribution to the end product, they’re not actually that big an impact because these things are used at a fraction of a percentage in the final product,” says Mr Griffiths.
“If you had a nosebleed and stood over the sink… you know that a little bit of colour goes a long way.”
Sensient
There’s a rush to produce alternative food colours
For the brands that have long relied on artificial colourings, it’s an upheaval.
“We are reformulating our cereals served in schools to not include FD&C colours by the 2026-27 school year,” says a spokesperson for WK Kellogg, the company behind Kellogg’s.
FD&C refers to certain certified synthetic colour additives regulated by the FDA, and approved by the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
Last year protesters gathered outside the company headquarters in Michigan, calling on it to remove artificial dyes from cereals such as Froot Loops.
“We will not be launching any new products with FD&C colours, beginning in January 2026,” the spokesperson said.
One of the challenges for food brands reliant on artificial colouring is that many natural food dyes don’t necessarily have a long shelf life, says Institute of Food Technologists food scientist Renee Leber.
“Whereas synthetic dyes will outlive the shelf life of pretty much any product.”
She also says that as many brands rush to make the switch it’s going to lead to a “bottleneck” in production.
“We don’t necessarily have all these colours available. But we have 10 months to get that right.”
Given this isn’t an outright ban, is it still expected to lead to sweeping change in the US food industry?
“If you are a cereal company and you have a brightly coloured cereal and all of your competitors switch from synthetics to natural colours, then you don’t necessarily want to be the last one,” says Ms Leber.
“It’s a tight timeframe but companies are doing their best to comply.”
Around 6,000 sites allowing porn in the UK will start checking if users are over 18 on Friday, according to the media regulator Ofcom.
Dame Melanie Dawes, its chief executive, told the BBC “we are starting to see not just words but action from the technology industry” to improve child safety online.
She told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme that “no other country had pulled off” such measures, nor gained commitments from so many platforms, including Elon Musk’s X, around age verification.
But the BBC understands at least one major porn site operating in the UK does not seem to be requiring age checks as of Friday morning.
And experts remain sceptical about the effectiveness of Ofcom’s age checks and how easy it may be for people, particularly children, to circumvent them.
Ofcom said on Thursday that more platforms, including Discord, X (formerly Twitter), social media app Bluesky and dating app Grindr, had agreed to bring in age checks.
The regulator had already received commitments from sites such as Pornhub – the UK’s most visited porn website – and social media platform Reddit.
Requirements to verify age on Reddit appear to have taken effect across a wide range of its individual, topic-based subreddits, such as those dedicated to discussions about alcohol.
The Technology Secretary Peter Kyle told BBC Newsbeat the UK’s new rules apply “common sense” to regulating the internet.
“We’re very used to proving our age in lots of different areas of life at the moment, and it makes sense that we do so more assertively when it comes to online activity,” he said.
“I think people actually think it’s pretty weird that you are age checked when you want to buy a can of Monster, but you’re not age checked when you access certain material online.”
The UK’s new online safety rules, explained:
Chris Sherwood, chief executive of children’s charity the NSPCC, said Friday’s new rules mean services “can no longer evade their duty for protecting children”.
He added it was “high time for tech companies to step up” and prevent children encountering harmful content on their platforms.
“Children, and their parents, must not solely bear the responsibility of keeping themselves safe online,” he said.
For Prof Elena Martellozzo, professor of child sexual exploitation and abuse research at the University of Edinburgh, the rules send a message to the tech industry that “child safety and child protection are not optional”.
“Failing to act is no longer excusable under the guise of technical complexity or business models,” she added.
‘More to be done’
Not all believe Ofcom’s rules go far enough to protect children as intended, however.
The Molly Rose Foundation, a charity founded by the family of Molly Russell – who took her own life at the age of 14 after seeing harmful content online – has said stronger legislation is needed to better protect children.
Andy Burrows, the charity’s chief executive, said Ofcom has prioritised “the business needs of big tech over children’s safety”, with thresholds for requirements and estimated costs for changes falling short of what is needed to force the largest companies to take action.
Derek Ray-Hill, interim head of the Internet Watch Foundation, meanwhile welcomed the new rules for sites allowing porn but said “there is still more to be done”.
He said platform operators should be considering how to make them safer by design and “doing everything they can to make sure we are building an internet that is safe for everyone”.
Others have have expressed concern that people may seek ways to circumvent so-called age gates on porn sites – potentially pushing them towards less regulated spaces with more dangerous and explicit sexual material.
“A lot of the porn out there is incredibly derogative to women and there’s a lot of violence and aggression,” said Reed Amber Thomas-Litman, a sex worker and educator.
“Of course people, not just kids or young adults, are going to mimic that.”
She told Newsbeat providing information about porn as part of the sex education curriculum could “help young adults understand it is a fantasy, it is not reality”.
Age checks could also negatively impact people who do not feel comfortable sharing their identity, such as LGBTQ+ people, she said.
“If you have to hand over your ID, that means you have no protection where that information is going,” she said.
“It could go to third party companies and who knows what they’ll do with that information.”
Many of the sites which operate age verification services say they do not retain ID, videos or images required for them to carry out age checks for any longer than necessary.
A dating safety app that allows women to do background checks on men and anonymously share “red flag” behaviour has been hacked, exposing thousands of members’ images, posts and comments.
Tea Dating Advice, a US-based women-only app with 1.6 million users, said there had been “unauthorised access” to 72,000 images submitted by women.
Some included images of women holding photo identification for verification purposes, which Tea’s own privacy policy promises are “deleted immediately” after authentication.
Tea said the breach affected members who signed up before February 2024. It added it had “acted fast” and was “working with some of the most trusted cyber security experts”.
The app has recently experienced a surge in popularity – as well as criticism from some who claim it is anti-men.
Tea lets women check whether potential partners are married or registered sex offenders as well as run reverse image searches to protect against “catfishing”, where people use fake online identities.
But one of the most controversial aspects of Tea is that it allows women to share information on men they have dated to “avoid red flags” but also highlight those with “green flag” qualities.
The company said the breached photos “can in no way be linked to posts within Tea”.
The firm blocks screenshots so that posts are not shared outside the app.
But on Friday it also admitted that an additional 59,000 images from the app showing posts, comments and direct messages from over two years ago were accessed.
Tea said: “We’re taking every step to protect this community – now and always.”
BBC News has contacted Tea for comment.
The company was set up in November 2022 by Sean Cook, a software engineer who said he was inspired to create Tea after witnessing his mother’s online dating experiences.
He told Medium in May: “I was shocked by how easy it was for catfish, scammers and criminals to take advantage of women on dating apps and how little traditional dating apps do to protect users.”
However, some men – and women – have challenged these types of groups claiming that they put men at risk of invasion of privacy and defamation.
Earlier this year, an individual named Nikko D’Ambrosio took legal action against Facebook’s owner Meta because of a number of statements made about him in a chat group called “Are We Dating the Same Guy”.
The lawsuit was thrown out by a federal judge in Illinois.
On Saturday, a spokesperson for BT – which owns EE – said the network was “running as normal” after maintenance was carried out last night, but that it was “monitoring” the situation.
The BBC’s Your Voice, Your News continued to receive messages from readers on Saturday saying that they had experienced issues with their phone service.
One 84-year-old customer said she and her husband were left unable to make “vital” daily calls to their daughter and son-in-law.
“The service is still down, into our third day of no service is unacceptable,” said another customer from Essex, who added that “the lack of information is deafening”.
“This is still an ongoing issue,” reported another customer from Exeter, who said multiple offices of his estate agency business were all experiencing problems making calls.
Earlier this week, EE customers reported that they were unable to make or receive calls, including to 999.
BT apologised for that outage on Thursday and said that it happened “following a technical fault impacting voice services” on their network.
Responding to the latest outage, EE said on Saturday: “We continue to conduct enhanced monitoring to prevent recurrence.
“We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this issue has caused.”
Bend It Like Beckham is set for a sequel more than 20 years after its release, its director has confirmed to the BBC.
Gurinder Chadha teased the revival in Basel on Saturday, where England’s Lionesses are preparing to face world champions Spain in Sunday’s Euro 2025 final.
The 2002 film, which starred Keira Knightley and Parminder Nagra, is credited with inspiring a generation of women to take up football.
“We’ve been part of changing the game for women, so it felt like this was a good time for me to go back and investigate the characters,” she said.
Chadha has earmarked 2027 for the next instalment, to mark both the film’s 25th anniversary and the Fifa Women’s World Cup in Brazil.
Chadha spoke to the BBC in Basel on Saturday
She said she was still unsure what form the sequel might take, but suggested it could either be another film or a television series.
The director told the BBC she had been asked almost twice a week since the original film was released to come up with a sequel.
“A lot has changed since the original movie, but I think that people still don’t think that women should play football,” she said.
“There are people who still don’t take it seriously, although the Lionesses are riding high.”
“I’ve left it a while, but I thought: look at the Euros, look at the Lionesses.”
Chadha said she hoped not only to reunite the original cast, but that members of the current England squad would be “queuing up” to take on cameo roles.
Grossing almost £60m on a budget of £3.5m, Bend It Like Beckham was a surprise hit that told the story of a young British-Indian girl with a passion for football.
Chadha told the BBC that she had not expected the original to be so successful.
Her intention, she said, had been to “uplift girls, girls who grew up like me, who were always being told how to dress, how to look, what to say, what not to say”.
“What I did was say you can do what you want, and you can have it all, and I think that’s a really great message to put out again. I think there’s still stuff to say, and stuff to challenge.”
Stokes had surgery on his left hamstring in January, having torn the same muscle last summer and had a knee operation in November 2023.
He only returned to bowling in late May during the one-off Test against Zimbabwe.
Still, Stokes has been England’s most consistent seamer this summer. His 16 wickets in the series are the most on either side.
However, the 129 overs has has bowled is his biggest workload in a single series, despite Trescothick saying after the second hamstring tear in December he may have to manage his bowling workloads. There are also only three days off before the fifth Test next week.
Trescothick suggested England’s management still needs to find a way to protect Stokes, who will be seeking to help England regain the Ashes in Australia later in the year.
“You have to manage everyone – him no different because of his impact as captain of the team you want him playing as many games as possible,
“If we can find a way [to limit his overs], of course it will benefit. The more games he will string together as captain and leader the better that will be for the team.”
India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak said wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant will bat if required despite his broken foot.
A longtime nurse approaching retirement recently posted on Reddit that he felt “defeated and cooked” after discovering a coworker had $460,000 more saved in their 401(k).
He shared his financial situation on the r/retirement subreddit, noting that he and his wife have about $240,000 saved for retirement, plus an anticipated $1,100 monthly pension, Social Security benefits between $1,800 and $2,300, and roughly $200,000 to $300,000 in other savings. “I absolutely can’t grind out eight more years working full-time,” he said.
“I was feeling OK about my plan,” he wrote, “until talking with a coworker in the same salary range who has managed to save about $700,000 in his 401(k).”
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Many redditors urged the nurse to stop comparing himself to others. “Comparison is the thief of joy,” one commenter said. Another added, “You were fine until you found out someone else has more? You’re 59, not 9. Way past time to stop playing that childish game.”
Several pointed out that his pension is a valuable asset often overlooked. “That pension is huge,” one person said. “It may not sound like a lot, but you would need about $400,000 in savings to be able to withdraw $1,100 per month.”
Others focused on his emotional exhaustion. The nurse explained he could not imagine working full-time for another eight years, prompting many to suggest transitioning into a less physically demanding role like remote case management or a teaching role.
While Fidelity recommends that Americans have eight times their salary saved by age 60, the reality for most people falls short. So while the nurse may not be hitting expert targets, he’s still ahead of the typical American.
Many commenters emphasized that retirement readiness comes down to spending, not just savings. “Your expenses drive how long you have to work,” one said. “What are your expected retirement expenses per month including health insurance? Know that and you can figure out how long you need to work.”
Some shared their own modest setups. One retired couple said they live well off a $2,900 pension, $1,100 Social Security check, and $200,000 in cash. Their monthly expenses total just $2,200, largely due to living in a low-cost area and owning a small home.
President Donald Trump’s visit to the Federal Reserve this week produced some awkward soundbites. But body language experts think there were several nonverbal moments between Trump and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell that spoke volumes.
Even though presidents rarely visit the politically independent central bank, Trump on Thursday toured the building, which is being renovated.
Trump and members of his administration have been publicly lambasting Powell for months over the Fed’s unwillingness to lower interest rates. The president has previously called on Powell to resign before his term ends in May 2026, and he’s referred to the Fed chair as a “numbskull.”
Furthermore, Trump had criticized the Fed’s renovation of two historic buildings prior to his visit on Thursday. His administration has accused Powell of mismanaging the project, with Trump calling the renovations “disgraceful,” The Associated Press reported.
On Thursday, Trump stood next to Powell at the construction site and told reporters that the cost of the renovations amounted to approximately $3.1 billion, saying it “went up a little bit — or a lot” while Powell shook his head in disagreement.
Trump then insisted his numbers were correct as he took out a piece of paper to confirm the costs. But when Powell saw the paper, he pointed out that the president was incorrectly factoring in the price of renovations on a third building that had been completed five years prior.
“Oh, you’re including the Martin renovation? You just added in a third building,” Powell said. “That’s a third building.”’
“Well, I know, but it’s a building that’s being built,” Trump responded.
“No. It was built five years ago,” Powell corrected him. “We finished Martin five years ago … It’s not new.”
Trump signaled to reporters following the tour that he would not be seeking to fire Powell, saying he didn’t think it would be “necessary” and that he believes the Fed chair is “going to do the right thing,” he said, per the AP.
But people online have still had a lot to say about the cringey tour. So we talked to body language experts, and they say there’s a lot more to take away from the president’s visit to the Federal Reserve on Thursday.
President Donald Trump and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell confer during the president’s visit to the Federal Reserve on July 24, 2025. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS via Getty Images
Powell’s body language said a lot during his back-and-forth with Trump over renovation costs.
Patti Wood, a body language and nonverbal communication expert and author of “SNAP: Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language, and Charisma,” said that before Trump provided his $3.1 billion figure, Powell’s shoulders were drooping slightly, with his mouth in a “tight downward frown.”
“He knows something bad is coming,” she told HuffPost. She later noted that after Trump shared his estimate, Powell “immediately and dramatically” turned his head to Trump, gave him a “razor sharp glare of anger” and then rapidly shook his head “no.”
“This is fascinating, as very few people actually shake their heads [‘no’] when Trump makes a false statement, making what would typically be a rather innocuous back-and-forth head shake an indication of Powell’s personal confidence,” she said.
Wood also noted that while shaking his head, Powell closed his eyes for “longer than three seconds,” which she explained is called an “eye shutter.”
“Eye shutter is a subconscious nonverbal cue that someone gives when they want to block out information,” she said.
Karen Donaldson, a communication and body language expert, also noted that Powell had occasionally closed his eyes during that moment, and she said that gesture, coupled with shaking his head “no,” communicates disagreement or disapproval.
“There is another moment where Powell had a strong response… we see it when he pulls his head and neck area back and slightly faces Trump, a gesture that signals someone being caught off guard and quickly distancing themselves,” she told HuffPost.
She later added that both Powell and Trump at one point stopped facing each other and faced forward. “It displayed a bit of a standoff,” she said.
Did it mean something when Trump removed his hard hat? ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS via Getty Images
Trump removing his hard hat while Powell was speaking was telling, experts say.
After Trump and Powell’s back-and-forth over the renovation costs, the president asked Powell if he expected any “additional cost overruns,” to which Powell replied: “Don’t expect them. We’re ready for them. We have a little bit of a reserve that we may use, but no, we don’t. Expect to be finished in 2027; we’re well along, as you can see.”
As Powell neared the end of his response, Trump removed his hard hat and said: “Nice to take these off every once in a while, when we’re not under too much danger.”
Traci Brown, an author and body language expert, told HuffPost that Trump was signaling at that moment that he was showing “he’s in charge.”
“Nothing has changed around him, but suddenly it’s safe,” she observed.
Wood said that she believes it was a signal that Trump was done interacting.
“He said his piece, and now he can take off his costume and be done,” she said. “It also serves as a way of directing attention away from Powell and back on himself, as it’s a large, sweeping motion.”
Donaldson noted that Trump redirected the conversation to his hard hat, and his body language at that moment might have signaled disinterest in what was being said.
And shortly after, when a reporter asked Trump what he would do as a real estate developer with a project manager who was over budget, the president said that, generally speaking, he’d “fire ’em.”
Brown noted that he dropped his tone at that moment, showing “authority.”
Powell doesn’t look thrilled to be touched by Trump. via Associated Press
Here’s what experts say Trump communicated when he made physical contact with Powell.
At one point during the visit, a reporter asked Trump whether there’s anything Powell could say that would make him walk back some of his previous criticism of the Fed chair.
The president hit Powell’s back in response and said in a comical tone: “Well, I’d love him to lower interest rates; other than that, what can I tell you?”
“He shouts this out as he turns to look at Powell, then hits him hard on his back,” Wood said about the moment. “That’s not just a subtle subconscious weapon-like gesture. Trump hits him in a punishing way.”
“This kind of force is highly unusual,” she added.
Donaldson thought the moment was a “mix between a playful touch and a control touch.”
“The playful touch accompanied with a laugh to break the tension. As well as a control touch to move Powell in the direction in which he wanted to walk,” she said.
Brown said that she believes that Trump “slaps Powell on the back under the guise of being old friends.”
“But a hit is a hit, and that shows anger,” she said. “And they move like they’re gonna walk off. This is Trump regulating Powell’s behavior. He’s showing that he can move Powell wherever he wants to.”
And when Trump again told reporters a minute or so later that he’d like to see interest rates come down, Brown said that Powell’s lips were pursed “in disagreement.”
While analyzing this moment, Wood added, Trump was standing in front of Powell, blocking him from the media.
“In the background, you see a sad face, diminished Powell,” she said.
The asteroid known as 2024 YR4 is out of sight yet still very much on scientists’ minds.
The building-sized object, which initially appeared to be on a potential collision course with Earth, is currently zooming beyond the reach of telescopes on its orbit around the sun. But as scientists wait for it to reappear, its revised trajectory is now drawing attention to another possible target: the moon.
Discovered at the end of 2024, the space rock looked at first as if it might hit our planet by December 22, 2032. The chance of that impact changed with every new observation, peaking at 3.1% in February — odds that made it the riskiest asteroid ever observed.
Ground- and space-based telescope observations were crucial in helping astronomers narrow in on 2024 YR4’s size and orbit. With more precise measurements, researchers were ultimately able to rule out an Earth impact.
The latest observations of the asteroid in early June, before YR4 disappeared from view, have improved astronomers’ knowledge of where it will be in seven years by almost 20%, according to NASA.
That data shows that even with Earth avoiding direct impact, YR4 could still pose a threat in late 2032 by slamming into the moon. The impact would be a once-in-a-lifetime event for humanity to witness — but it could also send fine-grained lunar material hurtling toward our planet.
While Earth wouldn’t face any significant physical danger should the asteroid strike the moon, there is a chance that any astronauts or infrastructure on the lunar surface at that time could be at risk — as could satellites orbiting our planet that we depend on to keep vital aspects of life, including navigation and communications, running smoothly.
Any missions in low-Earth orbit could also be in the pathway of the debris, though the International Space Station is scheduled to be deorbited before any potential impact.
Initially, YR4 was seen as a case study in why scientists do the crucial work of planetary defense, discovering and tracking asteroids to determine which ones have a chance of colliding with Earth. Now, astronomers say this one asteroid could redefine the range of risks the field addresses, expanding the purview of the work to include monitoring asteroids that might be headed for the moon as well.
“We’re starting to realize that maybe we need to extend that shield a little bit further,” said Dr. Paul Wiegert, a professor of astronomy and physics at the Western University in London, Ontario. “We now have things worth protecting that are a bit further away from Earth, so our vision is hopefully expanding a little bit to encompass that.”
In the meantime, researchers are assessing just how much chaos a potential YR4 lunar impact could create — and whether anything can be done to mitigate it.
An artist’s impression depicts an asteroid orbiting the sun. – ESA
‘City killer’ on the moon
The threatening hunk of rock appears as just a speck of light through even the strongest astronomical tools. In reality, YR4 is likely about 60 meters (about 200 feet) in diameter, according to observations in March by the James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful space-based observatory in operation.
“Size equals energy,” said Julien de Wit, associate professor of planetary sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who observed YR4 with Webb. “Knowing YR4’s size helped us understand how big of an explosion it could be.”
The Webb telescope captured images of YR4 in March using its NIRCam and MIRI instruments. – A Rivkin/Webb/STScI/CSA/NASA/ESA
Astronomers believe they have found most of the near-Earth asteroids the field would classify as “planet killers” — space rocks that are 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) across or larger and could be civilization-ending, said Dr. Andy Rivkin, planetary astronomer from the Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland. The planet killer that slammed into Earth 66 million years ago and led to the extinction of dinosaurs was estimated to be roughly 6 miles (about 10 kilometers) in diameter.
Smaller asteroids such as YR4, which was colloquially dubbed a “city killer” after its discovery, could cause regional devastation if they collide with our planet. About 40% of near-Earth space rocks larger than 140 meters (460 feet) but smaller than a kilometer — capable of more widespread destruction — have been identified, according to NASA.
But astronomers have never really had a chance to watch a collision of that size occur on the moon in real time, Wiegert said. The latest glimpses of YR4 on June 3 before it passed out of view revealed a 4.3% chance of a YR4 lunar impact — small but decent enough odds for scientists to consider how such a scenario might play out.
A striking meteor shower — and a risk
Initial calculations suggest the impact has the largest chance of occurring on the near side of the moon — the side we can see from Earth.
“YR4 is so faint and small we were able to measure its position with JWST longer than we were able to do it from the ground,” said Rivkin, who has been leading the Webb study of YR4. “And that lets us calculate a much more precise orbit for it, so we now have a much better idea of where it will be and won’t be.”
The collision could create a bright flash that would be visible with the naked eye for several seconds, according to Wiegert, lead author of a recent paper submitted to the American Astronomical Society journals analyzing the potential lunar impact.
The collision could create an impact crater on the moon estimated at 1 kilometer wide (0.6 miles wide), Wiegert said — about the size of Meteor Crater in Arizona, Rivkin added. It would be the largest impact on the moon in 5,000 years and could release up to 100 million kilograms (220 million pounds) of lunar rocks and dust, according to the modeling in Wiegert’s study.
Even pieces of debris that are just tens of centimeters in size could present a hazard for any astronauts who may be present on the moon, or any structures they have built for research and habitation, Wiegert said. The moon has no atmosphere, so the debris from the event could be widespread on the lunar surface, he added.
On average, the moon is 238,855 miles (384,400 kilometers) away from Earth, according to NASA.
Particles the size of large sand grains, ranging from 0.1 to 10 millimeters in size, of lunar material could reach Earth between a few days and a few months after the asteroid strike because they’ll be traveling incredibly fast, creating an intense, eye-catching meteor shower, Wiegert said.
“There’s absolutely no danger to anyone on the surface,” Wiegert said. “We’re not expecting large boulders or anything larger than maybe a sugar cube, and our atmosphere will protect us very nicely from that. But they’re traveling faster than a speeding bullet, so if they were to hit a satellite, that could cause some damage.”
Not all lunar debris that reaches the Earth is so small, and it depends on the angle and type of impact to the moon, according to Washington University in St. Louis. Space rocks slamming into the lunar surface over millions of years have resulted in various sizes of lunar meteorites found on Earth.
A graphic shows the range of possible locations of the asteroid in yellow on December 22, 2032. – NASA/JPL Center for Near-Earth Object Studies
Preparing for impact
Hundreds to thousands of impacts from millimeter-size debris could affect Earth’s satellite fleet, meaning satellites could experience up to 10 years’ equivalent of meteor debris exposure in a few days, Wiegert said.
Humankind depends on vital space infrastructure, said Dan Oltrogge, chief scientist at COMSPOC, a space situational awareness software company that develops solutions for handling hazards such as space debris.
“Space touches almost every aspect of our lives today, ranging from commerce, communications, travel, industry, education, and social media, so a loss of access to and effective use of space presents a serious risk to humanity,” Oltrogge said.
The event is unlikely to trigger a Kessler Syndrome scenario in which debris from broken satellites would collide with others to create a domino effect or fall to Earth. Instead, it might be more akin to when a piece of gravel strikes a car windshield at high speed, meaning solar panels or other delicate satellite parts might be damaged, but the satellite will remain in one piece, Wiegert said.
While a temporary loss of communication and navigation from satellites would create widespread difficulties on Earth, Wiegert said he believes the potential impact is something for satellite operators, rather than the public, to worry about.
Protecting Earth and the moon
Scientists and astronomers around the world are thinking about the possible scenarios since they could not rule out a lunar impact before YR4 disappeared from view, Wiegert said.
“We realize that an impact to the moon could be consequential, so what would we do?” de Wit said.
A potential planetary defense plan might be clearer if the asteroid were headed straight for Earth. Rivkin helped test one approach in September 2022 as the principal investigator of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, which intentionally slammed a spacecraft into the asteroid Dimorphos in September 2022.
Dimorphos is a moonlet asteroid that orbits a larger parent asteroid known as Didymos. Neither poses a threat to Earth, but the double-asteroid system was a perfect target to test deflection technology because Dimorphos’ size is comparable to asteroids that could harm our planet in the event of an impact.
The DART mission crashed a spacecraft into the asteroid at 13,645 miles per hour (6 kilometers per second) to find out whether such a kinetic impact would be enough to change the motion of a celestial object in space.
It worked. Since the day of the collision, data from ground-based telescopes has revealed that the DART spacecraft did alter Dimorphos’ orbital period — or how long it takes to make a single revolution around Didymos — by about 32 or 33 minutes. And scientists have continued to observe additional changes to the pair, including how the direct hit likely deformed Dimorphos due to the asteroid’s composition.
Similarly, if YR4 strikes the moon and doesn’t result in damaging effects for satellites, it could create a tremendous opportunity for researchers to learn how the lunar surface responds to impacts, Wiegert said.
But whether it would make sense to send a DART-like mission to knock YR4 off a collision course with the moon remains to be seen. It will depend on future risk assessments by planetary defense groups when the asteroid comes back into view around 2028, de Wit said.
Though defense plans for a potential moon impact still aren’t clear, YR4’s journey underscores the importance — and the challenges — of tracking objects that are often impossible to see.
Hidden threats
YR4 was detected by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS telescope, in Río Hurtado, Chile, two days after the asteroid had already made its closest pass by Earth, hidden by the bright glare of the sun as it approached our planet.
The same thing occurred when an asteroid measuring roughly 20 meters (about 65 feet) across hit the atmosphere and exploded above Chelyabinsk, Russia, on February 15, 2013, damaging thousands of buildings, according to the European Space Agency. While no one died, about 1,500 people were injured when the windows in homes and businesses blew out due to the shock wave.
A vapor cloud trail left by the Chelyabinsk asteroid. – M. Ahmetvaleev/ESA
Trying to observe asteroids is challenging for many reasons, Rivkin said. Asteroids are incredibly faint and hard to see because rather than emitting their own light, they only reflect sunlight. And because of their relatively tiny size, interpreting observations is not a clear-cut process like looking through a telescope at a planet such as Mars or Jupiter.
“For asteroids, we only see them as a point of light, and so by measuring how bright they are and measuring their temperature, basically we can get a size based on how big do they have to be in order to be this bright,” Rivkin said.
For decades, astronomers have had to search for faint asteroids by night, which means missing any that may be on a path coming from the direction of the sun — creating the world’s biggest blind spot for ground-based telescopes that can’t block out our star’s luminosity.
An illustration shows NEO Surveyor, NASA’s next-generation near-Earth object hunter. – University of Arizona/JPL-Caltech/NASA
But upcoming telescopes — including NASA’s NEO Surveyor expected to launch by the end of 2027 and the European Space Agency’s Near-Earth Object Mission in the InfraRed, or NEOMIR satellite, set for liftoff in the early 2030s — could shrink that blind spot, helping researchers detect asteroids much closer to the sun.
“NEOMIR would have detected asteroid 2024 YR4 about a month earlier than ground-based telescopes did,” said Richard Moissl, head of ESA’s Planetary Defence Office, in a statement. “This would have given astronomers more time to study the asteroid’s trajectory and allowed them to much sooner rule out any chance of Earth impact in 2032.”
ESA’s NEOMIR mission could spot previously unknown asteroids. – Pierre Carril/ESA
NASA and other space agencies are constantly on the lookout for potentially hazardous asteroids, defined as such based on their distance from Earth and ability to cause significant damage should an impact occur. Asteroids that can’t get any closer to our planet than one-twentieth of Earth’s distance from the sun are not considered to be potentially hazardous asteroids, according to NASA.
When the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory, located in the Andes in Chile, released its first stunning images of the cosmos in June, researchers revealed the discovery of more than 2,100 previously unknown asteroids after seven nights of observations. Of those newly detected space rocks, seven were near-Earth objects.
A near-Earth object is an asteroid or comet on an orbit that brings it within 120 million miles (about 190 million kilometers) of the sun, which means it has the potential to pass near Earth, according to NASA. None of the new ones detected by Rubin were determined to pose a threat to our planet.
Rubin will act as a great asteroid hunter, de Wit said, while telescopes such as Webb could be a tracker that follow up on Rubin’s discoveries. A proposal by Rivkin and de Wit to use Webb to observe YR4 in the spring of 2026 has just been approved. Webb is the only telescope with a chance of glimpsing the asteroid before 2028.
“This newly approved program will buy decision makers two extra years to prepare — though most likely to relax, as there is an 80% chance of ruling out impact — while providing key experience-based lessons for handling future potential impactors to be discovered by Vera Rubin,” de Wit said.
And because of the twists and turns of YR4’s tale thus far, asteroids that have potential to affect the moon could become objects of even more intense study in the future.
“If this really is a thing that we only have to worry about every 5,000 years or something, then maybe that’s less pressing,” Rivkin said. “But even just asking what would we do if we did see something that was going to hit the moon is at least something that we can now start thinking about.”
Out of 22 health inspections conducted in Broome County last month, one had critical violations, 18 had no violations, and four had unfixed violations remaining from previous inspections, according to new reports released by the Broome County Health Department.
There are over 90,000 food service establishments in New York state, according to health.ny.gov. Inspections include any establishment public or private that uses an on-site kitchen to serve food, this includes schools, nursing homes and more.
Due to the volume of food establishments inspected in the last month, a selection of the highest and lowest rated restaurants are shown below. You can search for current and past New York state health inspection reports on data.pressconnects.com.
Some Broome County eateries with the most health violations last month
Critical violations must be corrected on the spot, while non-critical violations must be addressed by a future date.
Tuscarora (Cc) Food Service
205 Summit Lake Road, Windsor
Inspection date: July 15, 2025
Violations: 4 total. 0 critical, 4 non-critical, 0 not fixed from previous inspection
Broome Tioga Boces Student Cnr
435 Glenwood Road, Binghamton
Inspection date: July 17, 2025
Violations: 4 total. 1 critical, 3 non-critical, 0 not fixed from previous inspection
Lighthouse Landing Campground/Food Service
3782 Us Route 11, Marathon
Inspection date: July 14, 2025
Violations: 2 total. 0 critical, 2 non-critical, 0 not fixed from previous inspection
Ofa – Vestal Sr Comm Center
201 Main Street, Vestal
Inspection date: July 16, 2025
Violations: 1 total. 0 critical, 1 non-critical, 0 not fixed from previous inspection
Broome County eateries with flawless health inspections last month
No health code infractions were found at these establishments during their inspections.
Whitney Point Preschool & Day Care Summer Feeding
2496 W. Main Street,
Inspection date: July 14, 2025
Violations: 0 total. 0 critical, 0 non-critical, 0 not fixed from previous inspection
Whitney Point High School/Sed
10 Keibel Road, Whitney Point
Inspection date: July 14, 2025
Violations: 0 total. 0 critical, 0 non-critical, 0 not fixed from previous inspection
Whitney Point High School
10 Keibel Road, Whitney Point
Inspection date: July 14, 2025
Violations: 0 total. 0 critical, 0 non-critical, 0 not fixed from previous inspection
C E Adams Elem School Summer Feeding/Sed
24 Keibel Road, Whitney Point
Inspection date: July 14, 2025
Violations: 0 total. 0 critical, 0 non-critical, 0 not fixed from previous inspection
W An Olmstead Summer Feeding/Sed
54 Main Street, Harpursville
Inspection date: July 15, 2025
Violations: 0 total. 0 critical, 0 non-critical, 0 not fixed from previous inspection
Windsor Sr High Cafeteria/Sed
1191 Ny Route 79, Windsor
Inspection date: July 15, 2025
Violations: 0 total. 0 critical, 0 non-critical, 0 not fixed from previous inspection
Lee Barta Community Center
108 Liberty Street, Binghamton
Inspection date: July 15, 2025
Violations: 0 total. 0 critical, 0 non-critical, 0 not fixed from previous inspection
Binghamton Housing Authority/Saratoga Terrace
60 Saratoga Avenue, Binghamton
Inspection date: July 15, 2025
Violations: 0 total. 0 critical, 0 non-critical, 0 not fixed from previous inspection
Alice Freeman Palmer Middl Sch/Sed
213 Main Street, Windsor
Inspection date: July 15, 2025
Violations: 0 total. 0 critical, 0 non-critical, 0 not fixed from previous inspection
Carlisle Apartments
150 Moeller Street, Binghamton
Inspection date: July 15, 2025
Violations: 0 total. 0 critical, 0 non-critical, 0 not fixed from previous inspection
What are critical and non-critical violations?
Red “critical” violations involve “food source and condition, food cooking and storage temperatures, sanitary practices of food workers, water and sewage, pest contamination of food and the use of toxic materials,” according to a spokesperson from the New York State Department of Health.
Critical violations must be corrected at the time of inspection because they include factors that could lead to foodborne illness.
In New York state, restaurant inspections are not conducted on a pass or fail basis.
Non-critical, or blue, violations are not related to factors that could directly cause foodborne illness, but they could have a negative effect on the operation of the restaurant. These types of violations relate to the maintenance, design, and cleanliness of the establishment.
Non-critical violations are not as urgent as critical ones and must be fixed according to the timeframe given by the health inspector.
How often are health inspections conducted in Broome County?
The frequency of food establishment inspections in New York state depends on the risk category of the establishment and the establishment’s history of health code compliance.
High-risk food establishments are inspected twice per year, medium-risk ones once per year, and low-risk ones every other year.
Examples of high-risk food establishments include table-service restaurants, diners and school kitchens which prepare foods – these are establishments that have complex food processes like preparing food in advance or reheating and cooling food.
Medium-risk food establishments don’t require such complex processes because they serve low maintenance food like pizza, hamburgers, sandwiches.
Bars and coffee shops are typical low-risk food service establishments due to the minimal preparation required for their food service.
The inspectors from health departments in each county are trained by the New York State Department of Health to standardize food establishment health inspections across the state. Information for each county’s health department can be found at health.ny.gov/environmental/water/drinking/ctyadd1.htm.
How do I report food establishments that might be violating health standards in Broome County?
The health department in each respective county is responsible for enforcing public health regulations.
If you suspect that a food establishment is dirty or might be violating health standards, report them to the Broome County Health Department and an inspector will investigate the complaint. To file a report, submit a complaint on https://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/indoors/food_safety/complaints.htm.
The USA TODAY Network is publishing localized versions of this story on its news sites across the country, generated with data scraped from local health department websites. Please leave any feedback or corrections for this story here. Our News Automation and AI team would like to hear from you. Take this survey and share your thoughts with us. This story was written by Ozge Terzioglu.
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