Science & Tech

A 'city-destroying' asteroid has suddenly become more likely to hit Earth

Asteroid 2024 YR4: Could It Hit Earth in 2032? NASA’s Urgent Response!
WooGlobe - News / VideoElephant

The odds of a ‘city-destroying’ asteroid hitting Earth in less than 10 years have risen.

Asteroid 2024 YR4 was found by NASA's Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System and it’s now at the top of NASA's Sentry Risk Table and European Space Agency's NEO (near Earth objects) impact Risk List.

It's estimated to be 300 feet (90 metres) wide and is currently 27 million miles away although if it does hit Earth, it could wipe out a city.

The space object is roughly the same size as the Tunguska asteroid that hit about 830 square miles (2,150 sq km) of remote Siberian forest in 1908. This event remains the largest impact event on Earth in recorded history although much bigger impacts happened during prehistoric times.

According to NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) the odds of a strike happening in 2032 are calculated to be 2.3 per cent, or a one-in-43 chance. It also has a rare three rating on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale (a 10 rating would be dire). With that said, previously, the chance of impact was reported to be about a one-in-83 chance and more updates are expected in due course ahead of 22 December, 2032 which is when the asteroid could potentially strike our planet.

However, the people of Earth don’t need to panic and as far as the experts are aware, 22 December, 2032 won't be doomsday. "There have been several objects in the past that have risen on the risk list and eventually dropped off as more data have come in,” NASA researcher Molly Wasser said in a statement.

“New observations may result in reassignment of this asteroid to zero as more data come in.”

David Rankin, Catalina Sky Survey engineer and asteroid hunter, told Space.com: "People should absolutely not worry about this yet. Impact probability is still very low and the most likely outcome will be a close approaching rock that misses us."

He added the "risk corridor", where the asteroid could hit Earth, runs through South America across the Atlantic and into sub-Saharan Africa.

Asteroids have hit the headlines in recent weeks, as the building blocks for life were found in samples collected from one. Elsewhere, the mystery of huge dust storms on Mars may well have finally been solved.

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