It was only a week ago that we heard of a 100m large asteroid barreling towards us to destroy whichever unfortunate city it landed on but that came with the soothing warning that it would probably just whizz harmlessly by and Scientists put the odds of it hitting us at 83/1.
A week is a long time in killer Asteroid detection though because that 83/1 has been slashed to 43/1 after the men in white coats at the European Space Agency had another look at the trajectory which if it does hit, will be somewhere South of the Equator between South America and sub-Saharan Africa.
To be fair 2024 YR4 is 27 million miles and eight years away so it must be difficult to be exact but the Worlds Telescope wielding fraternity are concerned enough to be making recommendations to the United Nations that maybe they might like to consider doing something to deflect it.
The Asteroid has risen to the top of both NASA's Sentry Risk Table and European Space Agency's Impact Risk List but the caveat is that we shouldn't start to worry just yet as there have been several objects in the past that have risen to the top of the risk list to then drop off as more data comes in and new observations may result in reassignment of this asteroid to zero.
More updates are expected in due course ahead of December, 2032 which is when the asteroid could potentially strike our planet but as luck wuld have it, we have already been practising deflecting massive Space Rocks with the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) which rammed spacecraft into a 170 meter Asteroid and changed it's orbit.
It was also a test in capturing an Asteroid and putting it in orbit around the Moon so it was a large step towards us having an freaking pet Asteroid circling the Moon in one of the coolest astronomical ideas ever, oh and yes, also preventing the residents of Buenos Aires being wiped out which is also very important.
For all that i am not concerned for three reasons, 43/1 is still very long odds, secondly we have already moved an Asteroid by lobbing our old Spacecrafts at it and thirdly i am sat 3,826.26 miles North of the Equator.
Sunday, 9 February 2025
Asteroid Destruction Odds Slashed
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
"our" spacecrafts? i thought it was a US craft...
yeah, it was NASA. you are welcome world. US to the rescue again... don't worry europe, we will take care of you... for a few more years.
time to put on your adult panties and take care of yourself - after 70 years of extensive economic, innovation, and military aid from the US.
Post a Comment