A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the Sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles.
It may sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than one per cent chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years.
Such an impact has the potential for city-level devastation, depending on where it strikes.
Scientists are not panicking yet, but they are watching closely.
“At this point, it’s ‘Let’s pay a lot of attention, let’s get as many assets as we can observing it,’” said Bruce Betts, chief scientist of The Planetary Society.
Dubbed 2024 YR4, the asteroid was first spotted on December 27, 2024, by the El Sauce Observatory in Chile. Based on its brightness, astronomers estimate it is between 130 and 300 feet (40-90 metres) wide.
