A GIANT asteroid that risks crashing into the Moon could be nuked before it makes impact.
Scientists are looking into the possibility of destroying the so-called “city-killer” asteroid using nuclear weapons.
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Late last year, asteroid 2024 YR4 made headlines after it emerged that it could strike Earth in 2032.
It led to the 180-foot-wide asteroid becoming widely known as a “city-killer” because of its size and potential for destroying a city.
The chance of it colliding with Earth rose to over 3%, before scientists discovered that the asteroid wouldn’t hit our planet after all.
However, there is still a very low chance that asteroid 2024 YR4 could crash into the Moon.
Current estimates put the probability of this happening at around 4%.
Scientists believe that if this were to happen, it would kick up “ejecta” from the Moon’s top layer of rock and dust.
“Studies of 2024 YR4’s potential lunar impact effects suggest lunar ejecta could increase micrometeoroid debris flux in low Earth orbit,” researchers said in a new pre-print study published on Arxiv.
“Up to 1,000 times above background levels over just a few days, possibly threatening astronauts and spacecraft.”
Authors of the study include scientists at Nasa, John Hopkins University, and the California Institute of Technology.
The problem for humanity is that this debris would circle Earth in low orbit.
And it scientists say that this could put both spacecraft and astronauts in harms way.
After all, even small objects can cause serious damage when travelling at extremely high speed in orbit.
Nasa previously attempted to study humanity’s ability to deflect asteroids.
In 2022, the Nasa DART – or Double Asteroid Redirection Test – mission successfully altered the path of Dimorphos, a moonlet of the asteroid Didymos.
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It did this by crashing a small spacecraft into it.
But the study notes that in this case, “deflection missions were assessed and appear impractical”.
So one option being considered is blasting the asteroid with nukes if “lunar impact is confirmed”.
“Kinetic robust disruption missions are available with launches between April 2030 and April 2032,” the researchers wrote.
The Moon – our closest neighbour explained
Here’s what you need to know…
- The Moon is a natural satellite – a space-faring body that orbits a planet
- It’s Earth’s only natural satellite, and is the fifth biggest in the Solar System
- The Moon measures 2,158 miles across, roughly 0.27 times the diameter of Earth
- Temperatures on the Moon range from minus 173 degrees Celcius to 260 degrees Celcius
- Experts assumed the Moon was another planet, until Nicolaus Copernicus outlined his theory about our Solar System in 1543
- It was eventually assigned to a “class” after Galileo discovered four moons orbiting Jupiter in 1610
- The Moon is believed to have formed around 4.51billion years ago
- The strength of its gravitational field is about a sixth of Earth’s gravity
- Earth and the Moon have “synchronous rotation”, which means we always see the same side of the Moon – hence the phrase “dark side of the Moon”
- The Moon’s surface is actually dark, but appears bright in the sky due to its reflective ground
- During a solar eclipse, the Moon covers the Sun almost completely. Both objects appear a similar size in the sky because the Sun is both 400 times larger and farther
- The first spacecraft to reach the Moon was in 1959, as part of the Soviet Union’s Lunar program
- The first manned orbital mission was Nasa’s Apollo 8 in 1968
- And the first manned lunar landing was in 1969, as part of the Apollo 11 mission
“Nuclear robust disruption missions are also available with launches between late 2029 and late 2031.”
They say that “with enough notice”, a “successful nuclear deflection or disruption of the asteroid” could be achieved.
It’s worth noting that this is just a study, and doesn’t mean any such plans will go ahead.
And it might not need to either, if scientists are able to determine that the asteroid won’t hit the Moon after all.
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