Hubble pictures of Asteroid Dimorphos which was purposefully pushed of its original trajectory by Nasa in 2022. Photo Credit Flickr NASA’s Marshall
For the first time a giant asteroid has triggered global planetary defence procedure, after its revealed there is a chance, it will collide with Earth in 2032.
The 100 metre-wide asteroid, names 2024 YR4, was first spotted by a telescope in Chile on December 27 and is now at the top of the impact risk list according to European and US space agencies.
Top of the risk impact list means this huge asteroid plummeting towards earth will need observing closely by astronomers.
Luckily the asteroid only has a minute chance of hitting the earth at 1.3% on December 22 2032, which means a nearly 99% chance of it flying right by without a problem. Professor of Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh has said that the Asteroid “just deserves a little more attention with telescopes until we can confirm that… it will pass by harmlessly. The longer we follow its orbit, the more accurate our future predictions of its trajectory become.”
The Torino Impact Hazard scale ranks 2024 YR4 as a three, which means a close encounter that needs to be tracked by astronomers. This is the protocol for any asteroid offering a 1% or higher chance of collision with Earth in the next decade. If it landed it might cause “localised destruction”. The Torino Impact Scale categorises NEO’s or near-earth objects based on how dangerous they are to the future of our civilisation the scale goes from 1 to 10.
There has only ever been one asteroid rated higher than 2024 YR4 on the Torino scale, which was Apophis in 2004 who made headlines as it was originally rated a category 4, it was later moved down the scale when observations proved it would not be a threat for another 100 years.
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