Newly Discovered Asteroid 2024 YR4
A newly discovered asteroid, 2024 YR4, has a slightly more than 1% chance of colliding with Earth in 2032. Despite the low probability, it has garnered attention.
Discovery and Characteristics
- 2024 YR4 was discovered in December by a Chilean telescope.
- The asteroid is comparable in size to a football field, measuring 40 to 100 meters across.
- It passed within 800,000 kilometers of Earth on Christmas Day.
- Scientists have until mid-April to analyze its path and size before it becomes too faint.
Potential Destruction
- Rated 3 on the Torino Scale, which categorizes an object's destruction potential.
- Expected to release 8 to 10 megatons of energy if it crashes.
- For comparison, the Chelyabinsk asteroid released energy equivalent to 500 kilotons of TNT.
Frequency of Asteroid Collisions
- Thousands of small asteroids enter Earth's atmosphere daily, often burning up without causing damage.
- Large, potentially disastrous asteroids strike Earth much less frequently.
- Asteroids larger than a kilometer could cause global disasters every 260 million years.
Space Agencies' Defense Plans
Space agencies, including NASA, are developing planetary defense mechanisms to prevent asteroid collisions.
- The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) was NASA's first planetary defense mission.
- In 2022, a DART spacecraft successfully altered the trajectory of the asteroid Dimorphos.
