For those wishing an asteroid “just end it already”, those chances may have risen a bit.
Called Asteroid 2024 YR4, the giant rock has a 1-in-45 chance of colliding with Earth when it comes into our orbit in 2032, years years from now.
At 130 to 300 feet across, the discovered asteroid would not be an extinction-level-event were it to hit our planet. But at an estimated 8 megatons of energy, it would release 500 times the amount generated by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
NASA is aware of the risk and keeps tabs on the asteroid as it continues its journey towards us.
Below we see the tracked asteroid as it moves amongst the stars.
In 2028, the asteroid will make an elliptical approach and we’ll better be able to estimate its trajectory. Hopefully by then the chances of impact will lower from the current 1-in-45 chance of it striking our planet.
Read up on NASA’s anti-asteroid plan of defense, should we need it.
The odds of newly discovered asteroid 2024 YR4 impacting Earth in 2032 have risen from 1.3% to 2.2%, according to NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS). This figure is as of Monday morning, February 10, and has been fluctuating regularly.
Via New York Times and Gizmodo.
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