Scientists estimate that 2024 YR4 is between 130 to 300 feet (40 and 90 meters) wide, large enough to cause localized devastation near the impact site. The asteroid responsible for the Tunguska event of 1908, which leveled some 500 square miles (1,287 square kilometers) of forest in remote Siberia, was probably about the same size.
So nothing to worry about
Provided it enters in a similarly uninhabited location.
I’m team asteroid.
Which direction do I need to fart to up those numbers?
Those are rookie numbers. Gotta pump those numbers up.
Panic?
I’m crossing my fingers for the wellbeing of the universe. We’re awful.
Worry not, for we are insignificant to the universe.
Right now.
Forever, humanity could only ever conceivably expand so far due to the expansion of the universe, so as far as we know a still insignificant portion of the universe we could colonize.
That’s 0.9% more than the last time I checked. I know those are still really low odds, but we can hope…
One of the things they’re doing is calculating what it’s orbit would have to be to hit the Earth, and where it would have had to have been on its last orbit to be in that orbit
So they can look at any astronomical images of that part of the sky from then and see if it’s in the right place
If they find images of the right part of the sky at the right time and the asteroid is not in it, they know it’s not on an orbit that will hit the Earth in 2032
don’t worry, it’ll just be like a small nuke, not a planet killer… (until they update the size estimates)
Better late than never I guess.
I’m not even joking. I want this asteroid to hit our planet and make us all go the way of the dinos.
Yes, please!
Sigh. Why can’t it be 109%
This place sucks.
It’s not big enough to fix anything. If it hits, it won’t hit America or Europe
It’s in the big nuke scale of energy, enough to do a lot of damage to a small area. Were it to hit a city, the city would need a lot of rebuilding. Were it to hit, few people would be in danger as we will have years of warning. The only people in the impact area would be “storm chasers” travelling to see the impact
I’ll only panic if it misses
Is there any way to speed this up
If we are able to nudge an asteroid, would an asteroid of this size nudge the earth?
Technically the solar system is a multi-body system, and everything nudges everything else, but the mass of the earth is far greater than the mass of the asteroid, to the point that it doesn’t matter.
Am I supposed to panic because it’s unlikely to hit? Meanwhile I’m out here wishing for death by meteor.
Yeah I’ll take one for the team. I go to the point of impact and when it finaly hits, I’m gonna try to punch it back into orbit.
You don’t have to thank me.
Honestly, at this point, there might be enough of us volunteering to bounce that fucker back to Jupiter. A lot of us will be turned into jam but I think it’s worth the sacrifice.
Just in case this comment is not a joke, here’s the WHO page on suicide prevention.
Either way, there are a few billion other people on this planet who would rather not die by meteor, thank you very much.
I mean, if I was going to go out, then getting my shit mixed by a meteor is pretty awesome. I’m sure I’ll make it on to a few Buzzfeed articles over the next ten or twenty years.
All things considered though, it would indeed be nice if it landed somewhere inconsequential like the ocean; the desert; or Florida.
What about hitting the Republican National Convention?
Hell yeah this would be my choice too on preferred way to die. There’s something beautifully deterministic about it, a random space rock flying around for millions of years and all my lifes choices and circumstances ending up in standing on the exact spot the meteorite ends its journey. Right in my head. Lovely.
Florida
You jest, but the Kennedy Space Center is in Florida. Putting the world’s busiest spaceport out of commission might put a damper on future asteroid deflection missions…
Eh, they can launch from Vandenburg if it’s that important. (Or, ya know, Guiana or Baikonur or whatever.)
Assuming any foreign space agency will work with NASA now…
Not to be a doomer but most of us will be dead by then I just hope the meteor takes out any lucky oligarchs still alive in a bunker.
You think “most of us” will be dead in … 7 years? That’s pretty doomer if you ask me.
I just read the ipcc reports and if you read those and don’t start a bucket list for the time we have left. I don’t know what to tell you. Trust me I don’t want to be this way I will fight where I can but I’m going to live my life the same time way a terminal patient lives. Cherish the days we got and if I’m wrong I will eat crow happily with a big smile on my face.
