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Asteroid YR4's Moon Encounter Dangerous for Earth Due to Possible 8-Mt Explosion
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.[Regnum] The collision of asteroid 2024 YR4 with the Moon could be dangerous for the Earth, since the collision of the cosmic body with the surface of the satellite will result in an explosion with an energy release of about 8 megatons. This was reported to TASS by astronomer, research fellow at the M.V. Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences Leonid Elenin.  "A collision [of an asteroid] with the Moon could be dangerous for the Earth, because there would be a powerful explosion, an energy release of approximately 8 megatons. The Moon has no atmosphere, low gravity, so all the ejected debris could eventually fall on our planet," Elenin said.
According to astronomers' calculations, asteroid 2024 YR4 may approach Earth in a little less than eight years - on December 22, 2032. In early February, NASA estimated the risks of this collision at 2.2%, later this figure rose to 3.1%. However, the service then again adjusted the figure to 0.28%.
A team of observers from the University of Arizona and NASA, created to identify potentially dangerous space bodies, admitted that 2024 YR4 could crash into the Moon. Experts noted that in this case, some debris could fall to Earth, but it would not pose a serious threat. Related: YR4 02/25/2025 Asteroid 2024-YR4: odds of hit down to 1 in 26,000 YR4 02/19/2025 Odds of the ''city-killing'' YR4 asteroid hitting Earth are up YR4 02/16/2025 Astronomer reveals when data on the orbit of asteroid 2024 YR4 will be available Posted by: badanov 2025-03-02 |
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