We might go full \u201cArmageddon\u201d on asteroid 2024 YR4.<\/p>\n
After mulling several different solutions, scientists have devised an unconventional method to stop the \u201ccity killer\u201d space rock from hitting the moon \u2014 by blowing it up with nukes. Their unorthodox measure of preventing a potential lunar crash landing was detailed recently in a yet-to-be-peer-reviewed study published on the arXiv preprint server. <\/a><\/p>\n The team, which includes experts from NASA, wrote that \u201cnuclear robust disruption missions\u201d could be launched in as little as four years from now.<\/p>\n First discovered in December 2024, YR4 sparked worldwide concern<\/a> that it could strike our planet on December 23, 2032, potentially generating enough power to destroy an entire city. <\/p>\n An artist\u2019s illustration of asteroid 2024 YR4. W. M. Keck Observatory\/Adam Makarenko<\/p>\n NASA\u2019s Center for Near Earth Objects has since downgraded the likelihood of the space rock striking home to a negligible 0.00081% chance<\/a>, but upped the chances of it hitting the moon on that date to over 4%.<\/p>\n If this were to happen, the cosmic collision could cause a cloud of shrapnel to impact Earth-orbiting satellites and spacecraft, while displaced matter could fall back to the moon, impeding rovers and even jeopardizing astronauts with the\u00a0Artemis program.<\/p>\n Bruce Willis in a scene from \u201cArmageddon.\u201d \u00a9 Touchstone \/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n To prevent this a-rock-alyptic outcome, the researchers proposed a \u201ckinetic disruption mission\u201d in which the space rock is blown apart with \u201cnuclear explosive devices\u201d like the plot of the dystopian thriller \u201cArmageddon.\u201d<\/p>\n The team proposed dispatching two 100-kiloton nuclear devices capable of auto-piloting themselves to YR4 \u2014 which measures over 300 feet in length<\/a> \u2014 and detonating with a force roughly five to eight times more powerful than the atomic bombs the United States dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945, Futurism reported. <\/a><\/p>\n In the 1998 movie \u201cArmageddon,\u201d a team led by Bruce Willis is tasked with detonating a nuclear bomb in an asteroid headed for Earth. \u00a9Touchstone Pictures\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a second explosive device would be kept \u201conboard in case it is needed,\u201d per the researchers. \u201cOtherwise, it can be safely disposed of by detonating it in deep space after the asteroid is successfully deflected by the first one,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n The team\u2019s other proposed solution was a deflection mission like NASA\u2019s 2022 Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), in which a spacecraft knocked an asteroid called Dimorphos off course by ramming it at high speed. <\/p>\n NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope captured images of asteroid 2024 YR4. NASA<\/p>\n However, they ultimately ruled it out on the grounds that there would not be enough time to conduct reconnaissance on the size and mass of the object.<\/p>\n This would be an essential step before launching an interception op on the rock, which is 379 million miles away.<\/p>\n \u201cDeflection missions were assessed and appear impractical,\u201d scientists wrote.<\/p>\n Not to mention that a recon mission wouldn\u2019t be able to launch until 2028, leaving defense systems only three years to intercept the threat. <\/p>\n By contrast, the team postulated that NASA could have anywhere from five to seven years to formulate the nuclear option, while the window for a launch ranges from 2029 to late 2031, Futurism reported.<\/p>\n Of course, we might not need to go to DEFCON four just yet \u2014 researchers reiterated that YR4 only has a slim chance of a lunar impact.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, this nuclear option presents yet another potential method of deflecting dangerous near-Earth space rocks in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We might go full \u201cArmageddon\u201d on asteroid 2024 YR4. 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