Tracking asteroid that could hit earth in 2032
90 Video Views·Feb 14, 2025
The world’s top astronomers are closely watching an asteroid they say has a 2.3% chance of hitting earth in 2032 - up from just 1% last month. Tom Costello explains what they’re looking for and what scientists are doing to prepare.
In the vastness of the galaxy, a single rock, asteroid 2024 YR4, is getting a lot of attention.
NASA's asteroid trackers say it has a 2.3 percent chance of crashing into Earth
around Christmas 2032, more than the one percent chance they gave it last month.
Give us the reality check. Is this asteroid going to hit Earth?
Up-to-date calculations say that it has about a two percent chance of hitting Earth in eight years,
which is a 98 percent chance that it's not going to hit Earth.
In 2022, NASA's DART mission successfully slammed into an asteroid named Dimorphos
seven million miles from Earth, pushing it into a slightly different orbit.
And we have impact.
A critical first test of a planetary defense to push future asteroids away from Earth.
YR4 could be 300 feet long, not as big as the dinosaur killer,
but bigger than the meteor that exploded over remote Russia in 2013,
causing massive damage, but no deaths.
If YR4 hits Earth, it'll likely be in an empty ocean in the southern hemisphere.
Out of all the asteroids known, it's the only one now that could possibly impact Earth,
but there's a 98 percent chance it won't.
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Transcribed by https://otter.ai