NASA’s call as odds of ‘city-killing’ asteroid striking Earth increase

American space agency NASA will train a powerful telescope on a potentially dangerous asteroid to assess the threat level.

Will it help stave off a potential armageddon?

NASA is training humanity’s most powerful telescope on a “city-killing” asteroid to determine whether or not we need to brace for deep impact.

Dubbed 2024 YR4, the building-sized space rock reportedly has a 1-in-43 chance of slamming into Earth in 2032 — up from about 1 per cent, the Independent reported.

The asteroid was discovered by NASA in December and is reportedly at the top of NASA’s watch list when it comes to hazards from beyond, the New York Post reports.

An artist’s impression of a “city-killing” asteroid. Picture: iStock

“It is very important that we improve our size estimate for 2024 YR4 (pictured),” the ESA wrote. Picture: NASA/Magdalena Ridge 2.4m telescope/New Mexico Institute of Technology/Ryan/AFP via Getty Images

With this “time-critical” threat potentially on our doorstep, the space agency has enlisted the aid of the James Webb telescope to study 2024 YR4 and gauge how much damage it would cause if it did strike our planet, per a blog post by the European Space Agency.

“It is very important that we improve our size estimate for 2024 YR4: the hazard represented by a 40m asteroid is very different from that of a 90m asteroid,” the ESA wrote.

Astronomers estimate the asteroid measures roughly 55m across — around the height of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Live Science reported.

Based on these calculations, a strike by YR4 would cause roughly the same amount of damage as the Tunguska event, which laid waste to around 80 million trees in Siberia in 1908, according to Space.com.

An artist’s impression of the James Webb telescope, which will be used to paint a more accurate picture of the asteroid’s size. Picture: NASA / SWNS

However, as these estimates are based on terrestrial telescope data, they only see sunlight reflected off the asteroid’s surface, providing them a limited picture of the cosmic body.

In reality, the asteroid could be much larger.

James Webb would help astronomers glean a more accurate measurement of its size by using its infrared instruments to study the heat — rather than brightness — given off by the asteroid.

“In general, the brighter the asteroid, the larger it is, but this relationship strongly depends on how reflective the asteroid’s surface is,” ESA officials said. “2024 YR4 could be 40m across and very reflective, or 90m across and not very reflective.”

Also, because it orbits the sun, the telescope doesn’t have to observe near-Earth bodies through our planet’s obscuring atmosphere like its counterparts on the ground, giving it a much clearer view.

The first round of James Webb observations will transpire in March when the asteroid is at its brightest. It will then set its sights on the YR4 again in May as the space rock rockets away from the sun, which will be its final chance to provide observations until the asteroid’s comeback tour in 2028.

These measurements will in turn be “used by ESA, NASA, and other organisations to more confidently assess the hazard and determine any necessary response,” the ESA wrote.

This data would be crucial because even with the current size estimates, experts predict that a strike by YR4 could explode with the force of 15 megatons of TNT — 100 times more powerful than the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, the Daily Mail reported.

This story was published by the New York Post and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as NASA’s call as odds of ‘city-killing’ asteroid striking Earth increase