A potentially catastrophic asteroid, 2024 YR4, is on a collision course with Earth, threatening densely populated areas and major cities around the globe. With a 3.1% probability of impact in December 2032, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab has sounded the alarm, sparking concerns about the devastating consequences.
According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, near-Earth asteroid 2024 YR4 has a significant chance of colliding with our planet on December 22, 2032. With a 3.1 percent probability of impact, this asteroid is currently considered the highest-threat asteroid ever detected.
The space agency suggests that if ‘just under eight years from now’ , 2024 YR4 were to make an impact it could hit densely populated areas of our planet. The risk corridor extends across the eastern Pacific Ocean, northern South America, the Atlantic Ocean, Africa, the Arabian Sea, and South Asia. This means that some of the largest cities on Earth, including ‘Bogota in Colombia‘ and ‘Mumbai in India‘, are at risk.
NASA estimates that an asteroid impact large enough to cause global devastation occurs every 100,000 years.
The 'Chelyabinsk meteor' in 2013 was a near-miss, exploding over Russia and injuring over 1,000 people.
Asteroids are tracked by astronomers using radar and telescopes, allowing for early detection and potential deflection or destruction.
The 'B612 Foundation' estimates that there is a 1 in 100 chance of a large asteroid impact within the next century.
The asteroid is estimated to be between 130 and 330 feet in length, which would result in significant devastation if it were to crash down anywhere near a population center. Upon impact, the space rock would release eight megatons of energy, more than 500 times the energy released by the bomb dropped on ‘Hiroshima, Japan in 1945′.
Asteroids are large rocks that orbit the Sun, and a small percentage have a chance to collide with Earth.
The impact can cause massive destruction, depending on the asteroid's size and composition.
For example, the 'Chelyabinsk meteor' in 2013 exploded over Russia, injuring over 1,000 people.
Asteroid detection and tracking systems are being developed to predict potential threats, but there is still much to be learned about these celestial bodies.
The European Space Agency noted that 2024 YR4 has surpassed the 2.7 percent chance of impact associated with the much larger asteroid, dubbed Apophis, back in 2004. As more observations are made, the uncertainty region will continue to shrink, and the impact probability may continue to rise.
Asteroid Apophis is a near-Earth asteroid that was discovered in 2004.
It has an estimated diameter of approximately 270 meters and a mass of around 2.7 billion kilograms.
According to NASA, there is a small chance (1 in 45,000) that 'Apophis could collide with Earth in the year 2068'.
However, astronomers have closely monitored its orbit, and no collision is predicted for the foreseeable future.
The asteroid's name comes from the Egyptian god of chaos, Apophis, reflecting its potentially hazardous nature.
As of now, 2024 YR4 comes in at a three on the 11-point Torino Impact Hazard scale, indicating that the possible impact is ‘meriting attention by astronomers,’ as well as attention from public officials if the encounter is less than a decade away.
