It was a discovery that leads to the headlines that stimulate panic: a giant asteroid and found that he was heading towards Earth, although it is unlikely to erase life, can lead to some grave damage.
But now the world can breathe a sigh of relief. After the prospects for future collision increased earlier this year, the possibility of a low effect is now low.
At an altitude of 40-90 meters (130-300 feet) in the width, the 2024 asteroid is much smaller than that that ended the era of dinosaurs-a body between six to nine miles (10-15 km). However, the effect with the Earth can be It still causes death and destructionThe asteroid was able to release the equivalent energy of 7.8 Motta of the explosive TNT.
As a result, a planetary defense response was operated, starting with experts closely affiliated with the asteroid’s path. Initially, the possibility of an effect increased in 2032, reaching 3.1 % on February 18 this year, but NASA data reveals that it is now 0.0017 %.
In other words, there is a chance of 99.9983 % of the asteroid will miss the ground. In fact, the “murder of the city” Currently occupies zero on Torino’s risk scale This ranges from the lack of risk of nothing to a global world 10.
The change was not unexpected: as the European Space Agency Previously indicatedThe probability of the asteroid’s effect often increases before declining when making additional notes.
These observations said: “This asteroid was a good evidence of the reason we got these procedures, and these procedures were done as expected:” higher than usual – but it is still very low – which led to more notes and planning, and these notes allow us to exclude the effect Collin Snowlands, Professor of Astronomy, Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh.
Snodgrass added that such alerts are likely to become more common. He said: “We must get used to alerts like this – as the new Vera Rubin Observatory begins to wipe the sky later this year, we will find many asteroids, and some will undoubtedly need more attention to excluding the effects.”
“This should not be a cause of warning – it is a sign that our technology is improving and that we are doing better in the discovery of asteroids, and it means that if we find one coming towards Earth, we have a better opportunity to find it with enough time to warn to do something about it.”