What will you be doing in 2032? Perhaps you’ll be preparing for an international disaster that could harm life on Earth. Got your attention.
Asteroid 2024 YR4 has a 1 in 83 chance of hitting the Earth in 2032. Asteroid 2024 YR4 swept into view of telescopes in Hawaii, Chile and South Africa on Dec 25, 2024. The asteroid is 150 feet wide, and while its size is not massive its weight and trajectory have NASA and various other interplanetary organizations wondering what its destructive power can be. Where will it strike the planet, and will it strike into a water body like the oceans or sea’s or solid earth? This matters.
The Astronomical Union (AU) keeps a scale known as The Torino Impact Hazard Scale which has remained at zero but has placed this particular asteroid at level 3. The rating can change depending upon many things such as…
the trajectory of the asteroid can be shifted by it striking space debris knocking it off course, or perhaps moving it into a more central direction towards the earth.
Asteroids can be slowed, or meander in space like a ball, which when thrown goes into an arch-like position.
The level can also increase in value, meaning the asteroid can move quicker, or hit larger asteroids creating a gathering effect of destructive asteroid fields that could hit Earth.
Whether this is a method of cooling the public fears or real science, the experts say that an asteroid of this size cannot end life on Earth, but it can cause massive local damage. Also as we know if it hits a large body of water various natural disasters could happen such as multiple tsunamis and we know just how destructive these can be. Specialists compare this possible happening to the massive asteroid strike that happened in Siberia in 1908, flattening 1000 square miles(2150 sq km) of forest since this strike happened in the middle of nowhere, in non-inhabited rural Russia the loss of life was minimal.
Image if this asteroid strikes a major city, Island or protected habitat like the Rain Forests of the Amazon. Further damage to the earth’s climate, global air quality and destruction of an entire region will bring nations to their financial knees. Earth’s ability to protect itself from these asteroids is still in immature untested stages. So how can Earth prepare for this obvious intrusion?
What about you? Science should be able to tell the public where and when it will strike. What if you’re in that local area? Emergency equipment and kits aside, would our EMS, Fire Fighters and Police Forces be prepared for such a catastrophe? Not in the present world experience, where police get the majority of revenues while the firefighters lose revenue, as too the EMS. America and Canada are moving towards a revenue-controlled state, where spending will be curtailed in favor of the military and other projects. Not a good time for this eh?
How do you prepare mentally and physically? Will you be a survivor or a victim? You have time to plan and prepare. Be wise, say your prayers and never rely upon the public authorities to be proactive!
Steven Kaszab
Bradford, Ontario
sources: Scientific America, UN Library, IFL Science
