The World Needs a Plan for the Inevitable Asteroid Strike
A newly discovered asteroid will almost certainly miss the Earth when it comes around in seven years, but eventually one will make impact.
A model of an asteroid, not the real thing.
Photographer: Chandan Khanna/AFP
I have some bad news, fellow Earthlings: There is a newly discovered asteroid, called 2024 YR4, headed for our planet. Fortunately, the risk is neither great nor urgent. The chance of impact, which would happen on Dec. 22, 2032, is estimated at only about 2.3%.
The worst-case scenario, though not world-ending, is still horrific. The asteroid is estimated to be between 130 and 330 feet long, and its impact could devastate a major city or, through a tsunami, coastline. For purposes of contrast, the space object that hit Siberia in 1908 is estimated to have been 130 feet long, and it decimated almost 800 square miles of forest. Furthermore, an asteroid strike today could cause a chemical, gas or nuclear accident.