2024 YR4 is an asteroid recently discovered by scientists in Chile (it's not the flying Tesla "asteroid", this one is legit). It is an "Apollo-type" near-Earth object that crosses our planet's orbit.
This week, scientists learned it had a 1.2%-1.6% chance of hitting Earth on 22 December 2032.
At a diameter of between 40 and 100 metres (130 and 330Β ft), an impact with the ground could release approximately 8 megatons of destructive energy.
For reference, that is 533 times the bomb at Hiroshima and more than double the maximum yield of a US Navy Trident II ICMB.
All this places 2024 YR4 at a troubling 3 (out of 10) on the Torino Scale of impact hazards. It is the only non-0 threat, and the second highest ever recorded, exceeded only briefly in 2004 by 99942 Apophis before closer observations revealed that asteroid would not hit Earth.
So that is the bad news. Ready for the good news?
Calculations by NASA and the ESA show that 2024 YR4's "risk corridor" (where it would hit) doesn't pose a threat to anywhere important.
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Wasn't one of Ed Teller's last suggestions to the scientific community and the US military (after the Cold War ended) to develop a massive nuke to launch at stuff like this before it reaches earth?
If this one is only 100m wide we could probably actually do that with existing rocket tech and existing nukes if we started planning now
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you don't need to blow it up, just knock it off course. even a laser would do it
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