Computer artwork of astroid near earth.Photo:Getty
Getty
The possibility of arecently-discovered asteroidstriking Earth has doubled within the past several weeks, according toNASA.
Asteroid 2024 YR4, which is estimated to be about 130 to 300 feet wide, was initially reported on Dec. 27, 2024. At the time, NASA astronomers calculated that the asteroid had a 1% chance of colliding with the Earth in December 2032. However, in a Feb. 7 blog post, NASA revealed that thechance of collisionhas since been updated to 2.3%.
And while 2.3% might sound insignificant, Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, toldABC Newsthat a percentage that high is “uncommon.”
Illustration of the asteroid believed to have led to the death of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.Getty
Additionally, scientists will lose sight of the asteroid in April 2028 due to its unique orbit pattern, meaning that researchers are attempting to discover as much about the object as possible before it disappears from view, per ABC.
NASA and other international space agencies will be using theJames Webb Space Telescope— the most powerful telescope ever launched into space — to get an even more accurate assessment of the asteroid’s size in order to better understand “how significant an impact could be,” per theEuropean Space Agency(ESA).
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According to the ESA, an object the current estimated size of asteroid 2024 YR4 collides with Earth approximately every few thousand years and causessignificant localized damage— as opposed to widespread planetary devastation.
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A similarly-sized asteroid enteredEarth’s atmospherein 2013 above the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia. While the asteroid ultimately exploded mid-air about 18 miles above the Earth, the explosion released the same amount of energy as 500 kilotons of TNT, according toThe Planetary Society. The blast injured “1,500 people and damaged 7,200 buildings across six cities,” per the org.
However, NASA notes there is no real cause for alarm — at least yet — as there have been a number of near-earth objects in the past that have risen on the “risk list” but eventually dropped to zero as more data became available, per their recent blog post.
source: people.com
