Can the World Relax About Killer Asteroids Now?
For a brief window, Asteroid 2024 YR4 looked like a planetary hazard in the making. At up to 90 meters (295 feet) in diameter, it was described as a potential 'city killer.' On its estimated trajectory, it could've collided with Earth as soon as 2032. According to the Torino Impact Hazard Scale, used to characterize such threats, it ranked a Level 3 out of 10 — a highly unusual designation, suggesting a 'close encounter' was plausible.
Panic is no longer in order: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has just reduced the odds of impact to 0.0017%, down from a high of 3.1%. But the uncomfortably uncertain path of this asteroid — discovered only in late December — offered a timely reminder of how vulnerable humanity remains to hidden perils whirling through space, and how much still needs to be done to protect the planet.
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Newsweek
3 days ago
- Newsweek
NASA Tracking Three Asteroids Approaching Earth
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. NASA is monitoring three asteroids soaring past the Earth at about 8,000 to 15,000 miles per hour, the biggest of which measures around 1,300 feet in diameter. The largest space rock, known as "424482 (2008 DG5)," is due to zip past our planet at over 13,800 miles per hour later today. It is expected to come as close as 2.17 million miles from the Earth, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), A smaller asteroid known as "2025 LD," which is around 73 feet in diameter, zoomed past the Earth earlier today at over 15,000 miles per hour, according to the JPL's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS). The space rock came as close as 696,000 miles from the Earth. A third asteroid, known as "2025 KY4," measuring around 42 feet in diameter, also zipped past the Earth earlier today, reaching within 1.72 million miles of our planet. The asteroid soared past at over 8,000 miles per hour. Stock image: An illustration of asteroids floating around in space. Stock image: An illustration of asteroids floating around in space. Getty Asteroids—small, rocky masses left over from the formation of the solar system nearly 4.6 billion years ago—are found in the main asteroid belt, orbiting around the sun between the paths of Mars and Jupiter. In February, data from the CNEOS showed the impact probability of an asteroid known as "2024 YR4" in 2032 was at 3.1 percent. This was "the highest impact probability NASA has ever recorded for an object of this size or larger," the national space agency noted at the time. Further studies that month brought 2024 YR4's chance of Earth impact on December 22 in 2032 down to 0.004 percent. The data showed there is "no significant potential" for 2024 YR4 to "impact our planet for the next century" and "the range of possible locations the asteroid could be on Dec. 22, 2032, has moved farther away from the Earth," NASA said in a blog post on February 24. 2024 YR4 was measured to be about 200 feet across by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, Andy Rivkin, an astronomer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, noted in a NASA blog post on April 2. There is still a "very small chance," however, for 2024 YR4 to impact the moon on that date, and that probability is currently 1.7 percent, the space agency noted. The orbits of asteroids bring them within 120 million miles of the sun. Most near-Earth objects (NEOs) are asteroids that range in size from about 10 feet to nearly 25 miles across. "The majority of near-Earth objects have orbits that don't bring them very close to Earth, and therefore pose no risk of impact," NASA says. A small portion of NEOs—known as potentially hazardous asteroids—do merit closer attention. PHAs, which are around 460 feet in diameter, have orbits that bring them as close as 4.6 million miles of the Earth's orbit around the sun, NASA notes. Despite the number of PHAs in our solar system, none is likely to hit our planet any time soon. "The 'potentially hazardous' designation simply means over many centuries and millennia the asteroid's orbit may evolve into one that has a chance of impacting Earth. We do not assess these long-term, many-century possibilities of impact," Paul Chodas, manager of the CNEOS, previously told Newsweek. Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about asteroids? Let us know via science@
Forbes
5 days ago
- Forbes
Asteroid Larger Than Golden Gate Bridge Approaches Earth In Rare Event
An asteroid that may be as big as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco will fly safely by Earth on Thursday, June 5, 2025. Bigger than 97% of asteroids, for such a large object to come close to Earth is a relatively rare event, but asteroid 424482 (2008 DG5) won't pose any threat. Asteroid 424482 (2008 DG5) is about 1,017-2,264 feet (310-690 meters) in size, which puts it in the top 3% of asteroids, according to In Manhattan, that's the distance from Grand Central Station to the One World Trade Center. It will come within 2.17 million miles (3.49 million kilometers) of Earth, about nine times farther than the moon. The moon is, on average, 238,855 miles/384,400 kilometers from Earth. That may not sound close — and it certainly poses no danger to Earth — but the European Space Agency classes such a close pass of such a large asteroid as "infrequent." Any object that comes within 4.6 million miles of Earth and is larger than 492 feet is capable of causing significant regional damage in the event of impact. 2008 DG5 is therefore referred to as a 'potentially hazardous object' by NASA. 2008 DG5 is an Apollo asteroid, which means its orbital pass crosses Earth's. It orbits the sun every 514 Earth days and was discovered in 2008 by the Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Arizona, part of NASA's Near Earth Object Observation Program. 2008 DG5's next close approach will be in 2032. It poses no danger to Earth, but if an asteroid the size of 2008 DG5 did strike Earth, it could cause catastrophic regional damage, possibly causing shockwaves and tsunamis. For context, the 'Tunguska Event' in 1908, which saw a fireball, massive forest fires and 80 million trees knocked over, according to NASA, was caused by an asteroid just 130 feet (40 meters) in diameter in size exploding six miles above Siberia. At the other end of the scale, the Chicxulub asteroid that's thought to have caused the dinosaur's extinction was six to 10 miles (10 to 15 kilometers) wide. 2024 YR4, an asteroid about 130 to 300 feet (40 to 90 meters) in diameter — as wide as the Statue of Liberty is tall — was a significant news story earlier this year when astronomers calculated it would strike Earth on Dec. 22, 2032. In the weeks after its discovery on Dec. 27, 2024, by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System in Chile, 2024 YR4 was thought to be destined to strike Earth along a 'risk corridor' calculated as stretching from the eastern Pacific Ocean through northern South America, the Atlantic Ocean, Africa, the Arabian Sea and South Asia. At one point, NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies had the asteroid's impact probability at 3.1% — the highest ever recorded for an object of that size — but on Feb. 24, it reduced the likelihood of an impact event almost to zero.
Epoch Times
01-06-2025
- Epoch Times
Trump Withdraws Isaacman as NASA Administrator Nominee
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