Why It Matters<\/p>\n
While Earth is no longer considered at risk from asteroid 2024 YR4, the moon now faces around a four percent chance of impact, according to data from NASA<\/a>. That probability has steadily risen from earlier estimates of 1.7 percent in February and 3.8 percent as of April<\/a>, as further observations were made using the James Webb Space Telescope<\/a>.<\/p>\n Although a direct hit to the moon is unlikely and wouldn’t change its orbit<\/a>, a lunar impact of this size\u2014by an asteroid estimated to be about the size of a 15-story building<\/a>\u2014could kick up enough debris to threaten satellites and astronauts in low-Earth orbit, according to the paper<\/a>.<\/p>\n What To Know<\/p>\n Asteroid 2024 YR4 gained attention when it was discovered in December 2024 and its chances of hitting Earth peaked at around three percent. That threat has since been ruled out, but the slim possibility of a moon impact remains.<\/p>\n Researchers considered various strategies, including deflection techniques like NASA\u2019s 2022 Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), which has successfully altered the trajectory of asteroids<\/a> in the past. <\/p>\n However, the paper\u2019s authors wrote that such missions were assessed and \u201cappear impractical.\u201d<\/p>\n Nuclear explosives presented a better option as these \u201care generally capable of handling larger asteroids and\/or shorter warning times than other methods, all else being equal,\u201d Brent Barbee, one of the researcher\u2019s behind the paper, told Newsweek.<\/p>\n The team suggested the deployment of two nuclear explosive devices\u2014one just \u201cin case it was needed\u201d\u2014each five to eight times stronger than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki<\/a>, according to Futurism<\/a>.<\/p>\n These would be launched toward the asteroid in an attempt to disrupt it before it reaches the moon.<\/p>\n The plan, according to the study, is more feasible than attempting a precision deflection mission that could inadvertently redirect the asteroid toward Earth.<\/p>\n What People Are Saying<\/p>\n Brent Barbee, one of the paper\u2019s authors told Newsweek: \u201cIn our paper, we chose the size of the nuclear device and how far in advance of Earth\/Moon encounter the asteroid is broken apart such that all the asteroid debris would be small and very widely scattered.\u201d<\/p>\n What Happens Next<\/p>\n \u201cThe James Webb Space Telescope may be able to detect the asteroid in early 2026, which could be used to help update its lunar impact probability, to include possibly dropping the probability to zero at that time,\u201d Barbee told Newsweek.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven that\u2014and the current low impact probability of 4.3 percent\u20142024 YR4 provided our team the opportunity to exercise the necessary mission design capabilities that could be needed in the event a significant threat to Earth is identified in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A newly proposed plan by a team of scientists, including NASA researchers, suggests using nuclear explosive devices to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[9480,718,108900,79,780,193,9175,49448],"class_list":{"0":"post-185037","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-asteroid","9":"tag-nasa","10":"tag-nuclear-bombs","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-solar-system","13":"tag-space","14":"tag-space-exploration","15":"tag-the-moon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Untitled-design-2025-09-26T150346.827.jpg\"\/)
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