Asteroid 2024 yr4, Around 40 to 100 meters wide measuring, will pass very close to the Earth in December 2032 – and can also attack the planet. Due to its size, speed, and the possibility of its effects, the Internet has given it the nickname of the “destroyer of the city”.
Major space agencies, such as European Space AgencyIt estimates that about 2 percent of the chance that 2024 YR4 will hit the Earth, although this risk figure will be updated as scientists learn more about the path of asteroid. Although it's far more likely Asteroid Will remember the Earth, the sites affected by a collision have already been recognized.
The devastating ability of 2024 YR4 depends on its composition, speed and mass. Because asteroid is still far away, these characteristics can only be estimated, and the results of the strike are also somewhat predictions at this stage. Currently, astronomers believe that 2024 YRR4 will build an airburst-or there will be an explosion in the middle-hurry-the affect that will be equal to about 8 million tonnes of TNT, or 500 times the power of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. This explosion will affect the radius of about 50 km around the site.
For the location of the collision, some experts, such as David rankins, with an engineer Nasal Katalina Sky Survey Project, sketch the “Risk Corridor”. According to the current path of asteroids, and if 2 percent of the possibility becomes reality, the asteroid should fall somewhere in a band of the North South America, across the Pacific Ocean, southern Asia, Arabian Sea and a band of Africa. Countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Sudan, Nigeria, Venezuela, Columbia and Ecuador will be at risk.
The dangers generated by asteroids and comets that can potentially strike on the earth are measured 11-Bindu Torino Scale: The higher the score, the higher the risk that a travel space item will affect the earth and cause large amounts of destruction. 2024 YRR4 is ranked to asteroid level 3, which means it is quite large and will be sufficiently passed to monitor carefully. However, most international agencies are convinced that the risk levels will be zero over time as the projection of asteroids becomes clear. Initially, the possibility of effect was 1.2 percent. It was then adjusted to 2.3 percent before the most recent evaluation reduced the risk by 2 percent.
This is not the first time such alert has been raised, nor 2024 YRR4 has been monitored. Asteroid ApophisWhich was discovered in 2004, several times scored over 2024 YR4 on both Torino scale and the bump probability. Shortly after the discovery, it was given a 2.7 percent chance of hitting the Earth. However, after a few months and with better comments, scientists adjusted their calculations to more realistic values. Now, although it will pass very close to the Earth in 2029, the possibility of collision is zero.
In response to 2024 YRR4, the United Nations has activated an emergency protocol for the safety of the planet. For some time, given the asteroid at level 3 of the torino scale, it is limited to continuous monitoring to understand the movements of the asteroid.
Measures are also being developed to protect the Earth from asteroids with disastrous capacity. These include kinetic strikes, where rockets are sent to space to hit the asteroids, to remove them from the path of confrontation with the earth. NASA's 2023 dart mission It has been proved that such attacks can be launched and they can move space objects, by testing this technique on a harmless asteroid called dimorphos.
This story appeared originally Wired n aspanol And has been translated from Spanish.