Scientists will use a giant telescope to gain a clearer understanding of Asteroid 2024 YR4
Space agencies have been granted permission to use a giant telescope to assess the potential impact of a "city-killer" asteroid. This rare opportunity comes as astronomers warn that Asteroid 2024 YR4, recently discovered, has a 2.3 percent chance, about one in 43, of colliding with Earth.
This asteroid has claimed the top spot on the European Space Agency’s "asteroid risk list" with the highest-ever collision probability. In stark contrast, the second most dangerous asteroid only carries a minuscule 0.68 percent chance of impacting Earth. The asteroid’s size suggests that if it were to strike Earth, the impact could rival the devastating force of the Tunguska event, which obliterated 830 square miles of Siberian forest in 1908. David Rankin, an asteroid hunter, played a crucial role in spotting 2024 YR4 early by "pre-covering" it, identifying the asteroid in archival data from the Catalina Sky Survey before it was officially discovered by astronomers.
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