The very real possibility of an asteroid, known as 2024 YR4, hitting Earth has led to widespread news coverage as the 1998 sci-fi classic Armageddon is given the chance of becoming a real life event.
But what would happen if 2024 YR4 did in fact have a trajectory that lined up with our planet? Well, the boffins over at NASA have a very real protocol in place if such a collision course was on the horizon.
Scientists at the US space agency have been monitoring the asteroid, which is projected to be 40 to 100 metres wide, after it caught its 'attention' at end of last year.
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The Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System in Chile, dubbed ATLAS, came across the space rock while observing the skies on 27 December, 2024. Mapping its path, astronomers revealed there was a very real - albeit small - chance of it hitting Earth in the near future; seven years away in 2032 to be precise.
Wired report that according to the asteroid’s current path, if it was to hit Earth, the experts reckon 2024 YR4 should fall somewhere in a band of territory stretching from northern South America, across the Pacific Ocean, to southern Asia, the Arabian Sea, and Africa. So, countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Sudan, Nigeria, Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador would be at risk.
As of right now there is a one in 43 (2.3 percent) chance of it hitting Earth, which is almost double the previous odds (1.2 percent).
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Keeping a constant eye on the skies is NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office.
The purpose of this department is to discover and track near-Earth objects including comets and asteroids that could collide with Earth. And as a result of that, work with the US federal government to prepare for an impact event.
NASA asteroid expert Dr Kelly Fast has explained what would happen if an asteroid collision event became something humanity had to face in real life away from the likes of Michael Bay's 1998 classic starring Bruce Willis.
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But just like in Armageddon, taking on the asteroid would be at the forefront of plans.
"Well, it's important to find asteroids before they find us in case we need to get them before they get us," Dr Fast says.
"An asteroid impact is the only natural disaster that could be prevented.
"NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office supports projects to discover asteroids and to calculate their orbits far into the future.
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"If an asteroid impact threat is discovered years or decades in advance, then a deflection mission might be possible. The first order of business for planetary defense is to find the asteroids."
NASA would issue an official alert in the event of an asteroid being a real threat to the world.
This would first be issued the governments of the countries where the asteroid was predicted to impact, followed by the wider world. The public would have to be informed about the threat and the United Nations made aware.
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Back in 2022, NASA experimented with its asteroid policy after blowing up a space rock in deep space.
Through its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, experts tested what Dr Fast described; how can we measure up against killer asteroids if the threat becomes real?
Costing $324 million, the scientific experiment calculated how much momentum would be needed to deflect the asteroid when hitting it head on.
DART smashed into the asteroid of choice, called Dimorphos, which was a minor-planet moon of the asteroid called Didymos. Dimorphos posed zero threat to Earth during the experiment, with it being around 11 million kilometres from our planet when struck.
Topics: NASA, Space, World News, US News, Viral
Tom Earnshaw