An asteroid the size of the Statue of Liberty, which is expected to hit our planet in the coming years, has had its collision path revealed.
David Rankin, an engineer from NASA’s Catalina Sky Survey Project, has mapped a “risk corridor” for the collision of the space rock “2024 YR4,” initially detected in December.
He predicted that the asteroid, which would reach Earth in 2032, could collide anywhere around northern South America, through the Pacific Ocean, southern Asia, the Arabian Sea, and Africa.
This would mean that India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Sudan, Nigeria, Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador would be at risk of the impact.
Internet users began suggesting that someone should try to destroy the asteroid. But in a post on X (formerly Twitter), scientist Dr. Robin George Andrews warned that even trying to protect ourselves from its impact could go wrong.
He referred to the Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART), the first mission dedicated to investigating and demonstrating a method of asteroid deflection through kinetic impact.
Hey asteroid 2024 YR4 watchers! I’m seeing a lot of people claim that, if it is going to impact Earth in 2032, we can use a DART-like spacecraft to ram it out of the way.
Well, not necessarily. The DART mission was fab, but might not be able to stop 2024 YR4.
Let me explain
pic.twitter.com/JzBfEx2TxG
— Dr Robin George Andrews
(@SquigglyVolcano) February 11, 2025
He explained that while DART was a successful mission, “this doesn’t mean we can use ‘kinetic impactors’ like this to deflect any asteroid whenever we want.”
“But no one wants to accidentally ‘disrupt’ an asteroid, because those pieces could still head toward Earth. As I often say, it’s like turning a cannonball into a shotgun spray,” he explained.
“But we won’t see it again until another Earth flyby in 2028. A lot can go wrong if we try to hit it with something like DART. It could be smaller or bigger. If it’s too large, we may not be able to deflect it with a spacecraft. We’d need several to hit it perfectly, all without breaking it catastrophically.”
“And with only a few years to go, we could accidentally deflect it — but not enough to make it avoid the planet. So, it still hits Earth, just somewhere else it wouldn’t have,” the expert emphasized.
“Maybe the probability of 2024 YR4 increases, and we successfully deflect it in 2028 with a monster-sized spacecraft. Or maybe we break some weird taboo and instead choose to use a nuclear warhead to try to deflect it, which would pack a bigger punch on the asteroid than DART.”
Photo and video: Pixabay and X @SquigglyVolcano. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
