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NASA Takes Urgent Action as Asteroid Poses Threat of Impact Within 7 Years

A expert has talked about what he thinks about the “city-destroying” asteroid that might hit Earth.

There is an asteroid traveling through space that might hit Earth within the next eight years, in case you missed something. The rogue piece of rock, which is marked 2024 YR4, is currently moving away from us. It will be back after traveling 828,800 kilometers and passing by on Christmas Day 2024.

And there’s a chance that it will hit Earth this time.

Asteroid 2024 YR4 is highly likely to miss our planet (Getty Stock Image)

Asteroid 2024 YR4 is highly likely to miss our planet (Getty Stock Image)

How likely is it that the asteroid 2024 YR4 will hit Earth?
Right now, scientists think that 2024 YR4 will start getting closer to Earth in late 2028. They think that it might actually hit the planet in 2032.

Officials at NASA say that they are keeping an eye on YR4 as an object of interest. But don’t worry just yet—predictions made this month say that the asteroid has a 2.3% chance of crashing into Earth.

And that means there’s a 97.7% chance that we’re not yet living out the story of a movie about the end of the world. Yay!

Pragmatists, on the other hand, will probably say that just because there’s a small chance that 2024 YR4 won’t hit Earth doesn’t mean we’re safe.

This is something that volcanologist Dr. Robin George Andrews thinks too. He recently said that we only have eight years to make a plan for the worst-case situation.

“You need 10 years or more to build, plan and execute an asteroid deflection mission,” he said recently on X. “We have less than eight years to potentially deal with it, if needed.”

We'll need JWST to get a better understanding of the asteroid (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

We’ll need JWST to get a better understanding of the asteroid (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

He said: “But we don’t have much time, and we don’t have enough info about this rapidly fading asteroid to properly inform our planetary defence decisions yet.”

JWST will help to carry out two observations this year (Getty Stock Image)

JWST will help to carry out two observations this year (Getty Stock Image)

What would happen if the asteroid 2024 YR4 hit the Earth?
Before I forget, I want to tell you that we are not directly facing the possibility of a dinosaurs 2.0 event should YR4 end up crashing into Earth.

Astronomers think the asteroid is between 40 and 100 meters wide. NASA said the damage would be “localized” and not cause the end of all life on Earth.

Still, things wouldn’t look good if YR4 landed on top of your house or even a city. According to CBS, space consultant Bill Harwood said it would be “truly catastrophic” for YR4 to land in an area with a lot of people.

 

Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Image

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