Global planetary defense procedures were put into effect after a 100 meter-wide asteroid was observed with a telescope and has a 1.3% chance of smashing into Earth’s surface causing deadly and irreversible damage on December 22, 2032.
An automated telescope in Chile spotted what is now called “Asteroid 2024 YR4” and has reached the top of many impact risk lists throughout the United States of America and all throughout Europe.
This asteroid is currently 27 million miles away and will come close to about 66,000 on the December 22, 2032 date.
According to the Guardian, an asteroid of this size would not cause a mass extinction like it did with the dinosaurs about 60 million years ago. That asteroid was anywhere between 10 to 15 kilometers wide. Since this oneShane Swan
is only 100 meters wide, it has the potential to cause damage on a city scale taking countless lives. Scientists also say that such an impact would cause an airburst within our atmosphere.
Since the sighting of Asteroid 2024 YR4, two UN-endorsed asteroid response groups have been activated, as well as the International Asteroid Warning Network has made a response and is going to make further action into the Asteroids flight patterns and uncertainties in its orbit.
The Space Mission Planning Advisory Group has been alerted and could plan to intercept the asteroid with an aircraft.
According to Space.com, space companies say that this asteroid is not cause for immediate concern and some characteristics of this asteroid are still unknown, there could still be factors that could cause greater damage. Astronomers will have a shot at finding these characteristics in 2028 when the asteroid is within the ballpark of 5 million miles.
This asteroid is likely around the same size as the 1908 Tunguska rock, which according to NASA, is currently the largest recorded asteroid strike event in human history. Even though there are no confirmed fatalities it is said to have knocked over 80 million trees and caused a forest fire that burned many reindeer’s, a major source for local tribes. The impact was said to have been recorded by seismographs all the way in Europe.
When asking the professor of the astronomy course at Bucks, Michael Babij, he said “Overall, there’s no reason to worry right now. The current probability of an impact is slightly over 1%. This is extremely low, although I’m sure people would rather it be at 0% just to be safe. At this point, there’s nothing that we really need to do right now except continue to gather data about the asteroid’s size, composition, and orbital path. This orbital path data will help astronomers “fine tune” the probability calculations and the size and composition data can give us a sense of potential impact damage.” He also said that “If there was a known object with a probability to
strike the Earth, the plans to avoid collision tend to fall into one of two categories: deflect it or blow it up.”
It seems that many scientists, and astronomers are not worried about this right now and Asteroid YR4 will remain on the list of potential risk until it comes a bit closer to analyze in 2028.