NASA issues disturbing update on 'city destroying' asteroid that could hit the moon in a matter of years
NASA have issued a disturbing and unexpected update on the 'city destroying' asteroid that could plummet towards the moon in the coming years.
Many updates have come out regarding the 'city destroying' asteroid '2024 YR4' in recent months, as experts at NASA continuing to leave more regarding its movements.
The space geeks over there say the asteroid could come plummeting into the Earth on December 22, 2032.
Reports suggest it could be as big as the Statue of Liberty, so it's important scientists act carefully when it comes to how's best to approach things.
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While the Moon could end up being affected by the asteroid, experts have spoken on how it would impact us on Earth, and thankfully, the disruption should be minimal.
"There is the possibility this would eject some material back out that could hit the Earth, but I highly doubt it would cause any major threat," David Rankin, who works as an operations engineer for the University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey, told New Scientist.
Meanwhile, Gareth Collins of Imperial College London added: "We would be quite safe on Earth. Some small ejecta fragments might reach Earth, but [would be] totally harmless."
While the likelihood of the asteroid colliding with the moon was at 1.2 percent earlier this year, it has seen increases to the point where there's now a 4.3 per cent of impact.
Molly Wasser, public affairs officer for NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office, said in a press release: "As data comes in, it is normal for the impact probability to evolve."
Meanwhile, Richard Moissl, head of the European Space Agency's planetary defence office, added: "The possibility of getting a chance for an observation of a sizable Moon impact is indeed an interesting scenario from a scientific point of view."
Despite the now increase risk, there is still a massive 95 percent chance the asteroid will completely miss the Moon.
Dr Robin George Andrews has previously warned that even protecting ourselves from the asteroid's impact could go wrong.
On Twitter, the expert referred to the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), a mission dedicated to investigating and demonstrating one method of asteroid deflection by changing an asteroid’s motion in space through kinetic impact.
"Nobody wants to accidentally 'disrupt' an asteroid, because those components can still head for Earth. As I often say, it's like turning a cannonball into a shotgun spray," Andrews said. "But we aren't going to see it again until another Earth flyby in 2028. So much could go wrong if we try and hit it with something like DART.
"It may be smaller, or larger. If it's too big, we may not be able to deflect it with one spacecraft. We'd need several to hit it perfectly, all without catastrophically breaking it."
Callum Jones