City-killer asteroid heading towards Earth caught on film
By April 2025, the object will be so far away that it will become too faint to be detected by Earth-based telescopes, meaning we won't be able to track its progress and its possibility of hitting Earth until 2028.
The latest impact probability is available on the automated Sentry page at NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
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If the asteroid entered the atmosphere over a populated region, an airburst of an object on the smaller side of the size range, about 130 - 200 feet (40 - 60 meters) could shatter windows or cause minor structural damage across a city. An asteroid about 300 feet (90 meters) in size, which is much less likely, could cause more severe damage, potentially collapsing residential structures across a city and shattering windows across larger regions.
If the asteroid does head for Earth and is of a size that could cause devastation, a kinetic impactor spacecraft like NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission - which collided with the asteroid Dimorphos in 2022 - is one asteroid deflection technique that could be used to address a potentially hazardous asteroid in the future.
'If you put it over Paris or London or New York, you basically wipe out the whole city and some of the environs,' Bruce Betts, chief scientist of The Planetary Society, told AFP.
Scientists say the current trajectory puts the asteroid over seven potential large cities - including Mumbai.
Each asteroid is unique, and deflection would depend on the asteroid's size, physical properties, orbit, and discovery warning time. For 2024 YR4, NASA are still in the information gathering stage.
Asteroid 2024 YR4 will arrive on December 22, 2032. Some astronomers have described it as a 'city killer' and say it could detonate with hundreds of times the force of the Hiroshima bomb. It has been compared to the Tunguska strike, which flatted hundreds of square miles of trees when it an asteroid exploded in the atmosphere 100 years ago.
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Fast Company
35 minutes ago
- Fast Company
How cuts to NASA could hurt everyday Americans
TECH The space agency collects what it calls the planetary 'vital signs' that are key for global public health research. Potential cuts could threaten that work. Tanager-1, the Carbon Mapper Coalition's first satellite, which carries a state-of-the-art, NASA-designed greenhouse-gas-tracking instrument, could be decomissioned under Trump cuts. [Photo: Planet Labs PBC] BY Listen to this Article More info 0:00 / 14:15 Daniel P. Johnson, a geographer at Indiana University at Indianapolis, works with a team of researchers who spend a lot of time catching blowflies, dissecting their iridescent blue-green abdomens, and analyzing the contents of their guts. Johnson and his colleagues are tracking the spread of Lyme disease on a warming planet. But they need a lot of additional data. They get it from NASA. The world's foremost driver of space science is not a public health agency. But NASA's vast data collection has quietly become important for health research, helping scientists track disease outbreaks and monitor air pollution amid climate change. Now, as President Donald Trump's administration proposes sweeping cuts to the agency's budget, including its Earth Sciences Division, experts are worried that many of these data sources could be lost, and research collaborations halted, with serious consequences for public health. NASA 'really enabled a whole new world of health research that the public health community hadn't been doing yet,' said Susan Anenberg, who directs the George Washington University Climate and Health Institute, and whose own work has been funded by NASA for nearly a decade. NASA, of course, is best known for launching expeditions into space and capturing images of distant galaxies. But NASA also has a mission to Earth. Its satellites surveil what the agency calls 'vital signs of the planet' and supply information to scientists whose work is decidedly Earthbound. A good deal focuses on tracking the effects of climate change on groundwater levels, wildfires, global temperature trends, and more. Those changes come with health hazards, and research funded by NASA or supported by NASA data has helped scientists study the effect of environmental changes on malaria, avian flu, asthma, and other respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, as well as cognitive decline in the elderly and preterm birth, both of which can be affected by heat. The space agency also tracks air pollution and particulate matter, which isn't all caused by global warming, though a warmer planet may make some health hazards of pollution more severe and complex. That interaction is part of what scientists are using NASA data to better understand. In the case of the blowflies, Johnson and his team are using NASA data to track the spread of Lyme. Blowflies feed on fecal matter and decomposing meat, including that of white-footed mice, which are a reservoir for the bacteria that cause Lyme disease. If there's a lot of white-footed mouse DNA in the flies' guts, it suggests there are a lot of those mice around, which in turns offers some signal about the prevalence of Lyme. (At one point, his team found tiger and elephant DNA in fly guts, which was puzzling—until the researchers remembered that the Indianapolis Zoo was nearby.) Lyme disease is tick-borne, and the ticks bite mice and then bite humans. By tracking the mice via the blowfly guts, Johnson and his team aim to create a rough map of where Lyme is present and how it's moving across the landscape. To fill in that map, Johnson relies on NASA data about the physical environment—the landscape, meteorological conditions, air temperatures, and incoming solar radiation values. The result, he hopes, will inform Indiana's public health officials' efforts to reduce the spread of Lyme—and with time, contribute to a broader understanding about this tick-borne disease on a warming planet. In addition to tracking the disease locally, Johnson and other scientists are looking at how climate change could make Lyme more prevalent, and possibly, as some data suggests, more infectious. Johnson received NASA funding in 2008 to study early strategies to protect urban areas during heat waves. Now, he's hoping to get a NASA grant to continue his Lyme research, still in its early stages. Without it, continuing this work, now backed by his university and local health departments, would be more difficult over the long haul. The geographer is one of many researchers and policymakers who have benefitted from a focus within NASA on examining conditions on Earth. 'We have a constellation of over 20 satellites and sensors in Earth's orbit, including several on board the International Space Station, that are continuously monitoring Earth's weather, climate, and environment for research and applications purposes,' John Haynes, a meteorologist and program manager in NASA's Earth Science Division, said on a NASA broadcast last year. 'We get a ton of data on the Earth's system, and how it is changing, downloaded every day from that constellation. And that data gives us information on things like land surface temperature, ocean surface temperature, vegetation density, air pollution, wildfires, you name it,' Haynes added. That 'ton of data,' he said, is almost 25 terabytes every day. NASA makes data available at no charge to researchers and to federal, state, and local public health agencies in the United States, and around the globe. A lot of Anenberg's work at George Washington University involves making some of that data more accessible, she said. NASA has wanted it to reach 'people in local government, people in school boards, people in any walks of life.' Her group, she said, has created several websites, one of which allows users to look up local levels of fine particulate matter or carbon dioxide, or example, and compare it to cities elsewhere. The future of some of that public health work is now unclear. The Trump administration's proposed budget for the coming fiscal year would, if enacted, bring NASA's spending back to 1961 levels, with cuts to science divisions including Earth science tantamount to an ' extinction-level event,' according to a piece by Asa Stahl, science editor for The Planetary Society, a nonprofit that advocates for space science and exploration. The overall budget would be cut by nearly 25%, and Earth science more than halved. The White House has described these cuts as an attempt to refocus NASA on space exploration by prioritizing missions to the Moon and Mars. In May, NASA closed a New York office that housed the Goddard Institute for Space Studies lab, part of the agency dedicated to studying climate change and other Earth sciences. The researchers who worked at that site weren't fired, but a brain drain of NASA scientists has begun and may well accelerate. As of late July, nearly 4,000 NASA staff had opted for early retirements and similar arrangements, according to a statement from the agency. The number of departures may still rise. '[T]he last six months have seen rapid and wasteful changes which have undermined our mission and caused catastrophic impacts on NASA's wokforce,' a group of current and former agency employees wrote in a recent open letter. NASA's chief scientist and senior climate adviser, Katherine Calvin, was let go earlier this year. 'The cutting-edge science taking place at NASA has far-reaching societal benefits, more than many people are aware. The climate crisis is a public health crisis, and fighting these crises will not happen in a vacuum,' Rep. Zoe Lofgren, the top Democrat on the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, wrote to Undark in an emailed statement. 'Unleashing chaos on the agency by gutting science programs, firing employees without cause, and proposing draconian budget cuts for NASA,' she added, 'will hurt Americans and jeopardize the future of our rising generations.' Several NASA spokespeople, as well as Haynes and other scientists at the agency, as well as House and Senate Republicans involved with space policy, did not respond to requests for interviews, or referred Undark to public budget documents. In a brief emailed statement, NASA press secretary Bethany Stevens said the agency 'remains committed to our mission as we work with a more prioritized budget.' She did not address how proposed cuts could affect environmental data and public health work. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has partnered with NASA on climate research, also did not comment. While Republican lawmakers have mostly endorsed the Trump administration's overall vision for the agency, Congressional appropriators have approved spending bills that would largely leave NASA's funding intact. But the Trump administration has withheld money appropriated by Congress in other agencies, and presidential appointees have made clear they plan to keep doing so. Some conservative policy thinkers champion a dramatic realignment of NASA spending. 'My view is that NASA should not be chasing climate, period,' said Anthony Watts, a senior fellow of the Heartland Institute, a think-tank known for arguing that climate change is not a crisis. It's fine if NASA launches satellites for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or the U.S. Geological Survey, he said, but 'NASA should concentrate on space and space missions.' NASA used to widely promote its climate and public health work. The agency had a presence at last year's American Public Health Association conference, complete with a big high-definition video screen the agency calls its ' hyperwall,' which illustrates how researchers can draw on NASA data to map, for instance, where water-borne diseases are likely to emerge. In recent years, the public health work has become more varied and more urgent, touching both global and domestic health. 'There's a lot of possibility for conducting public health research with NASA data and tools, ' said Anenberg, the George Washington University researcher. 'And the reason the field exists the way it does now, with a lot of people doing that research, is because of support from NASA.' But it requires money. And if those funds get cut as deeply as the White House has proposed, the impact could be vast. It's not yet clear, though, precisely which specific programs within Earth sciences could be axed—though firing the top climate scientist may be a signal. So, too, might recent news that the Trump administration is moving to have NASA decommission two satellites that gather information on greenhouse gases. Many scientists and public health experts want earth science and health research to remain squarely within NASA's mission. NASA satellite imagery, for example, has been used to develop tools that can predict cholera outbreak risks in countries like Bangladesh. Health teams can mobilize to avert or minimize illness. NASA data has also been used to study malaria, which is widespread, often seasonal, and endemic in many parts of the world. As the climate changes and rainy spells and dry spells shift, the timing and contours of the malaria season are changing, said Richard Steketee, who spent 25 years at the CDC, mostly working on malaria. That adds an unwelcome amount of guesswork for health teams that need to know where and when to preposition the bed nets, insecticide, and prophylactic drugs. Mapping those changes is complex, but NASA satellites and computer modeling can help, said Steketee, who served as deputy coordinator for the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative in his final five years at the CDC before retirement. The focal point for much of the work in the last few years is NASA's Health and Air Quality Applied Sciences Team, or HAQAST. The research cohort, consisting of scientists from within and outside NASA, is led by Tracey Holloway, a professor of energy analysis and policy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Recently, Holloway has been studying how to best utilize satellite data to fill in environmental health knowledge gaps in rural areas, given that many counties don't even have a single ground-based monitor to track ozone, fine particulate matter, and other pollutants. In public health, 'more information can lead to better risk characterization, better forecasts, better outreach,' she said in an interview. That includes better tracking of wildfire smoke with satellite data to support emergency public health response. Funding for the current round of HAQAST work was approved by the Trump administration this year, with the 'goal of connecting NASA with private- and public-sector information needs,' Holloway wrote in a follow-up email. But there are no guarantees, she wrote, and no alternative source of financial support. Drew Shindell, a professor of Earth science at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment, has both worked at NASA and been funded by NASA as a grantee. Over 30-plus years, his own professional trajectory has aligned with the growing urgency of the climate crisis. Originally a researcher of the stratosphere, he has shifted his work to focus on modeling climate change, including its impacts on health. When connections between public health and this kind of research came up, he recalled, there were people both within NASA and on the Hill who didn't think that was NASA's job, that it was mission creep. While Shindell agreed that NASA's work in this area should be coordinated with other agencies to avoid duplication, he disagreed with any arguments that NASA shouldn't be involved in such research at all. In part, the desire to study health, as well as his increasing interest in looking at the economic impact of climate change, propelled him to move to an academic setting at Duke. He still uses NASA data, NASA computers, and NASA supercomputers to model the effects of a warming world. He and his colleagues develop scenarios and do physical science in order to model those scenarios' impact on climate, health, and economies. In the academic world, he can work on that whole continuum in a way he could not had he remained at NASA. And now, whether even that work can continue may be uncertain. Joanne Kenen is the Journalist in Residence at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where the Kresge Foundation supports her work on climate and health. Earlier, she spent a decade overseeing health coverage at Politico. This story originally appeared at Undark. The early-rate deadline for Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies Awards is Friday, September 5, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today. Sign up for our weekly tech digest. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Privacy Policy ABOUT THE AUTHOR Joanne Kenen is the Journalist in Residence at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where the Kresge Foundation supports her work on climate and health. Earlier, she spent a decade overseeing health coverage at Politico. More
Yahoo
44 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Here's why NASA wants your photos of hurricane damage
NASA is launching a pilot program to harness citizen science for faster hurricane disaster recovery. The space agency, in collaboration with the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program, a science and education initiative, is spearheading a new Response Mapper project. This innovative initiative will utilize photographs submitted by the public, both before and after a disaster, to track ground conditions in affected areas. Throughout the summer and fall, NASA is actively encouraging public participation in the program, especially from residents in the Southeast, the region most often devastated by tropical storms, hurricanes, and related flooding. 'Your contributions could ultimately help emergency managers make faster and better-informed decisions when it matters most and strengthen your community's ability to respond and recover from disasters,' NASA said. These time-stamped and geotagged images will be shared directly with emergency responders, complementing existing data from satellites and field reports, according to the space agency. Disaster response teams often face challenges when obtaining "clear, localized" information, especially in rural areas, NASA said. Satellite imagery offers a broad view of hazards but may overlook short-lived impacts due to factors such as cloud cover, timing of the orbit, or data processing delays. Satellites can also overlook finer details that photos taken closer to the ground could capture. 'We're exploring how citizen science can support disaster response in ways that Earth observation data alone can't,' said Kristen Okorn, a coordinator for NASA's Disasters Response Coordination System, in a statement. 'A single photo of land cover, whether it is a flooded street, fallen trees, or even an undamaged area, can offer helpful context.' Such photos can be combined with other observations to help verify the situation on the ground, determining where cleanup crews are needed or assessing other impacts such as crop losses or potential further threats to public safety. Citizens can share photos by downloading the GLOBE Observer app on their smartphones and joining the NASA Response Mappers team. The agency stresses that there is an inherent risk during hurricane season and members of the public should never put themselves in danger to take photos, particularly when collecting data in the midst of or immediately after a severe storm. Data collection is requested in areas of the south and southeast United States, including the states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, as well as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
How big is Starship? How megarocket stacks up to SpaceX Falcon 9, New Glenn, other spacecraft
How big is SpaceX's Starship rocket? Big. Very, very big. So big, in fact, that the spacecraft has earned the designation as the world's largest rocket. To put it in relatable terms, at about 400 feet high, Starship is taller than a football field is long from endzone to endzone. And when you compare the rocket's height to other U.S. spacecraft, including from SpaceX, the difference is even more pronounced. As the commercial rocket company founded by billionaire Elon Musk gears up to launch Starship on its 10th ever test flight from South Texas, you may reasonably be wondering what all the fuss is about with this so-called "mega rocket." Wonder no more. Here's a look at how Starship compares to other rockets that are often in the news: SpaceX's Falcon 9, Blue Origin's New Glenn and the United Launch Alliance's Vulcan. What is Starship? SpaceX mega rocket bound one day for Mars SpaceX is developing Starship to be a fully reusable transportation system, meaning the rocket and vehicle can return to the ground for additional missions. In the years ahead, Starship is set to serve a pivotal role in future U.S. spaceflight. Starship is the centerpiece of Musk's vision of sending the first humans to Mars, and is also critical in NASA's plans to return astronauts to the moon's surface for the first time in five decades. NASA's lunar exploration plans call for Artemis III astronauts aboard the Orion capsule to board the Starship while in orbit for a ride to the moon's surface. Musk, though, is more preoccupied with Starship reaching Mars – potentially, he has claimed, by the end of 2026. Under his vision, human expeditions aboard the Starship could then follow in the years after the first uncrewed spacecraft reaches the Red Planet. How big is Starship? What to know about world's largest rocket The Starship, standing 403 feet tall when fully stacked, is regarded as the world's largest and most powerful launch vehicle ever developed. When fully integrated, the launch system is composed of both a 232-foot Super Heavy rocket and the 171-foot upper stage Starship itself, the spacecraft where crew and cargo would ride. Super Heavy alone is powered by 33 of SpaceX's Raptor engines that give the initial burst of thrust at liftoff. The upper stage Starship section is powered by six Raptor engines that will ultimately travel in orbit. How Starship compares to Falcon 9, Blue Origin New Glenn, ULA Vulcan That size means Starship towers over SpaceX's other famous rocket, the 230-foot-tall Falcon 9. The two-stage Falcon 9 rocket is one of the most active in the world – routinely launching astronauts on missions to the International Space Station from the Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, Florida. Falcon 9 is also the launch system vehicle used to deploy SpaceX's internet-beaming Starlink satellites into orbit from both Florida and the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan rocket, which launched earlier in August on a national security mission from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Base, is slightly smaller than the Falcon 9. At 202 feet tall, Vulcan is highly configurable – able to fly with anywhere from zero to six solid rocket boosters in addition to its main booster for additional liftoff power. Vulcan's Centaur V upper stage is what powers the spacecraft to reach such extreme orbital heights after separation. Otherwise, Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket is the only spacecraft that comes close to rivaling Starship in size. The 322-foot-tall launch vehicle is still early in development and has only flown on one test mission in January from Florida. When is the next Starship launch from Starbase, Texas? SpaceX plans to conduct the 10th flight test of its Starship spacecraft Sunday, Aug. 24, with a target liftoff time of 6:30 p.m. CT. SpaceX conducts Starship test flights from the company's Starbase headquarters in South Texas, located about 23 miles from Brownsville and about 180 miles south of Corpus Christi. Texas voters in Cameron County approved a measure in May for Starbase to become a city, complete with a mayor and a city council. Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@ This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: How big is Starship? Comparing height of SpaceX rocket to others Solve the daily Crossword
