Asteroid 2024 YR4, The measurement of approximately 40 to 100 meters wide in December 2032 will be very close to Earth – and may even attack the planet. Because of its size, speed and probability of its impact, the Internet has given it a “city destroyer” nickname.
Main space agencies, such as the European Space Agency, estimate that there are about 2 percent likely to hit 2024 YR4, although the risk is updated because scientists learn more about the asteroid path. Although it is likely to lose this asteroid, sites that can be affected by collision have already been identified.
The destructive potential of 2024 YR4 depends on its composition, speed and mass. Since the asteroid is still far away, these properties are only estimated, and so the consequences of the strike at this stage are somewhat false. At present, astronomers believe that 2024 YR4 could create an air effect-the explosion of the middle air-an impact that is equivalent to about 8 million tonnes of TNT, or reduced by 500 times the power of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. The explosion affects about 50 km radius around the impact site.
For the location of the collision, some experts, such as David Renkin, the Sky Sky Nasa project engineer, have drawn the “hazard hallway”. According to the current asteroid route, and if the probability of 2 % is reality, the asteroid must collapse in a group of territory drawn from North America, in the Pacific, to the South Asia, the Arab Sea and Africa. Countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Sudan, Nigeria, Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador will be at risk.
The threat created by asteroids and comets that can potentially attack the Earth is measured on a Torino score at a scale of 11 points: the higher the score, the risk that a travel space object affects the Earth and causes Be a lot of destruction. The asteroid 2024 YR4 is currently at Level 3, meaning it is large enough and approaches enough to make the merit. However, most international agencies are assured that the risk level decreases to zero over time as the asteroid pathway is brighter. Initially, the probability of 1.2 percent was the probability. Then, before evaluating the latest evaluation, the risk reduced the risk to 2 %.
This is not the first time that such a warning has been made, as well as the 2024 YR4 is the most dangerous space object to be examined. The asteroid Apophis, discovered in 2004, was sometimes obtained above 2024 YR4 on the Torino scale and the possibility of an accident. Shortly after it was discovered, it was given 2.7 % of the possibility of hitting the ground. However, after a few months and with better observations, scientists set their calculations with more realistic values. Now, although it will be very close to Earth in 2029, it is likely to collide.
In response to 2024 YR4, the United Nations has activated the emergency protocol to protect the Earth. Currently, as the asteroid is on Level 3 of the Torino scale, this is limited to continuous monitoring for understanding asteroid movements.
There are also measures to protect the Earth against asteroids with malicious potential. These include kinetic strikes, where missiles are sent into space to deal with asteroids to separate them from an Earth’s way of dealing. NASA’s Dart 2023 mission has proven that such strikes can be launched and that by testing this technique on a harmless asteroid called Dimorphos, they can move space objects.
This story appeared first Wired en español And translated from Spanish.
