THERE’S AN ACTUAL, PROJECTED CHANCE ASTEROID 2024 YR4 COULD HIT PLANET EARTH IN 2032
For the most part, I’ve ignored almost all news flashes in the last few years of “asteroid has slight chance of hitting earth,” over and over again. And I must say that as clickbait goes, Armageddon without Bruce Willis headlining is underwhelming. But asteroid 2024 YR4 is more than a likely Star Wars droid name. It’s actually something we need to keep track of, because not only does it have a real chance of hitting the Earth, scientists have even predicted its possible path of intersection, which is a threat to about 110 million people.
Read More: Measles Could Cause Immune Amnesia, Which Is Even More Devastating
IF IT HITS, 2024 YR4 IMPACT ZONE COULD DESTROY 110 MILLION PEOPLE, MULTIPLE CITIES
And that’s where the concept of clickbait gets pretty moot. Because unlike Y2K, which was generalized histrionics of the most wasteful sort, asteroid 2024 YR4 hitting planet Earth could mean some real devastation. How much devastation? An impact that would be equal to roughly 500 times the Hiroshima nuclear bomb. And, well, we just don’t really know what the wider repercussions of such an asteroid strike would be for the whole world, not just the poor folks who would immediately be gone. So everybody should have some interest in being clued in to this.
Related:
THE SIZE OF BIG BEN, 2024 YR4 HITTING WOULD BE LIKE 500 HIROSHIMA NUCLEAR BOMBS
This means you should be wondering about chances. What is the possibility that asteroid 2024 YR4 could hit? And where might it hit? According to the Are We Doomed Yet?” impact tracker, there is a 2.633% chance it could hit planet Earth. And if that doesn’t sound too likely, another way to look at it is 1 in 38. But for the 110 million people at risk in (we think so far) in South America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, that 1 in 38 is a threatening number. And between now and 2032 (when it might hit), our information is likely only going to get more accurate, for better or worse.
Or, like Y2K, we’ll wave the rock the size of Big Ben goes by and shrug about how we’ll never be enticed by asteroid clickbait again.
