01-30-2025, 06:43 PM
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025...earth-2032
A 100 metre-wide asteroid has triggered global planetary defence procedures for the first time after telescope observations revealed it has a chance of colliding with Earth in 2032.
Asteroid 2024 YR4 was spotted by an automated telescope in Chile on 27 December last year but has since risen to the top of impact risk lists maintained by the US and European space agencies.
Based on measurements gathered so far, the asteroid has a 1.3% chance of smashing into Earth on 22 December 2032, or put another way, a nearly 99% probability of barrelling past without incident.
“Most likely this one will pass by harmlessly,” said Colin Snodgrass, a professor of planetary astronomy at the University of Edinburgh. “It just deserves a little more attention with telescopes until we can confirm that. The longer we follow its orbit, the more accurate our future predictions of its trajectory become.”
Well, even though there's only a 1.3% chance of this happening, it's still worth investigating - because on the off-chance that it does hit the earth, it'd probably devastate the local area!
I certainly hope it doesn't hit any heavily-populated areas - and if it does, then I hope we figure it out in good time, so that the people can get out safely.
A 100 metre-wide asteroid has triggered global planetary defence procedures for the first time after telescope observations revealed it has a chance of colliding with Earth in 2032.
Asteroid 2024 YR4 was spotted by an automated telescope in Chile on 27 December last year but has since risen to the top of impact risk lists maintained by the US and European space agencies.
Based on measurements gathered so far, the asteroid has a 1.3% chance of smashing into Earth on 22 December 2032, or put another way, a nearly 99% probability of barrelling past without incident.
“Most likely this one will pass by harmlessly,” said Colin Snodgrass, a professor of planetary astronomy at the University of Edinburgh. “It just deserves a little more attention with telescopes until we can confirm that. The longer we follow its orbit, the more accurate our future predictions of its trajectory become.”
Well, even though there's only a 1.3% chance of this happening, it's still worth investigating - because on the off-chance that it does hit the earth, it'd probably devastate the local area!
I certainly hope it doesn't hit any heavily-populated areas - and if it does, then I hope we figure it out in good time, so that the people can get out safely.
![[Image: CJTrain.gif]](https://caludin.com/mystuff/requests/CJTrain.gif)
Board Information and Policies
Affiliation | Coffee Credits | Ranks and Awards | Name Changes
Account Deletion | BBCode Reference
Moonface (in 'Woman runs 49 red lights in ex's car')' Wrote: If only she had ran another 20 lights.
(Thanks to Nilla for the avatar, and Megan for the sig!)
.