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10mon
90

Don’t panic, but an asteroid has a 1.9% chance of hitting Earth in 2032

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/02/thanks-to-nasa-you-probably-wont-have-to-worry-about-this-asteroid-killing-you/
MrTrono @lemmy.world - 10mon

Am I supposed to panic because it's unlikely to hit? Meanwhile I'm out here wishing for death by meteor.

89
LouNeko @lemmy.world - 10mon

Yeah I'll take one for the team. I go to the point of impact and when it finaly hits, I'm gonna try to punch it back into orbit.

You don't have to thank me.

24
joelfromaus @aussie.zone - 10mon

Honestly, at this point, there might be enough of us volunteering to bounce that fucker back to Jupiter. A lot of us will be turned into jam but I think it’s worth the sacrifice.

1
MrTrono @lemmy.world - 10mon

But I'm on team meteor

0
threelonmusketeers - 10mon

Just in case this comment is not a joke, here's the WHO page on suicide prevention.

Either way, there are a few billion other people on this planet who would rather not die by meteor, thank you very much.

15
PhobosAnomaly - 10mon

I mean, if I was going to go out, then getting my shit mixed by a meteor is pretty awesome. I'm sure I'll make it on to a few Buzzfeed articles over the next ten or twenty years.

All things considered though, it would indeed be nice if it landed somewhere inconsequential like the ocean; the desert; or Florida.

23
threelonmusketeers - 10mon

Florida

You jest, but the Kennedy Space Center is in Florida. Putting the world's busiest spaceport out of commission might put a damper on future asteroid deflection missions...

3
grue @lemmy.world - 10mon

Eh, they can launch from Vandenburg if it's that important. (Or, ya know, Guiana or Baikonur or whatever.)

2
Mirshe @lemmy.world - 10mon

Assuming any foreign space agency will work with NASA now...

2
murmelade - 10mon

Hell yeah this would be my choice too on preferred way to die. There's something beautifully deterministic about it, a random space rock flying around for millions of years and all my lifes choices and circumstances ending up in standing on the exact spot the meteorite ends its journey. Right in my head. Lovely.

0
ShaggySnacks @lemmy.myserv.one - 10mon

What about hitting the Republican National Convention?

0
lordnikon @lemmy.world - 10mon

Not to be a doomer but most of us will be dead by then I just hope the meteor takes out any lucky oligarchs still alive in a bunker.

9
Omgpwnies @lemmy.world - 10mon

You think "most of us" will be dead in .... 7 years? That's pretty doomer if you ask me.

9
llamacoffee @lemmy.world - 10mon

Very doomer. Does lemmy have a "remind me in 7 years" bot? 😅

3
lordnikon @lemmy.world - 10mon

I just read the ipcc reports and if you read those and don't start a bucket list for the time we have left. I don't know what to tell you. Trust me I don't want to be this way I will fight where I can but I'm going to live my life the same time way a terminal patient lives. Cherish the days we got and if I'm wrong I will eat crow happily with a big smile on my face.

3
Comment105 @lemm.ee - 10mon

I'm not even joking. I want this asteroid to hit our planet and make us all go the way of the dinos.

-4
Da Cap’n - 10mon

Yes, please!

-4
HorikBrun - 10mon

Panic?!

You mean throw a welcome party?

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parpol @programming.dev - 10mon

To people having panic attacks, it is not large enough to destroy the earth, and we would have plenty of time to evacuate the impact location. Though let's hope it isn't anywhere with permafrost.

41
Jimmycakes @lemmy.world - 10mon

You mean populate the impact zone because I'm going to watch

25
Miles O'Brien - 10mon

Yeah, my dogs will be gone by then so I would absolutely set up a tent close enough to catch it. I'd even bring a baseball glove for shits and giggles.

6
taiyang @lemmy.world - 10mon

Aw, you think we'll still have permafrost by then.

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photonic_sorcerer @lemmy.dbzer0.com - 10mon

It'll be an equatorial impact.

1
SuperSaiyanSwag @lemmy.zip - 10mon

Well that’s disappointing

-1
Etterra @discuss.online - 10mon

I'm team asteroid.

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blackstampede @sh.itjust.works - 10mon

Unexpected Waterworld dipstick guy

6
THCDenton - 10mon

He's my go-to for posts like these

2
blackstampede @sh.itjust.works - 10mon

Underutilized meme format, honestly. It can apply to almost anything in daily life circa 2025.

2
DarkFuture @lemmy.world - 10mon

Panic?

I'm crossing my fingers for the wellbeing of the universe. We're awful.

22
floquant - 10mon

Worry not, for we are insignificant to the universe.

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Zacryon @feddit.org - 10mon

Right now.

5
Zetta - 10mon

Forever, humanity could only ever conceivably expand so far due to the expansion of the universe, so as far as we know a still insignificant portion of the universe we could colonize.

5
Zacryon @feddit.org - 10mon

Until we make some scientific breakthrough which might solve that problem. If there is any possible of course. There is so much we still don't know.

1
Coreidan @lemmy.world - 10mon

I’ll only panic if it misses

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pjwestin @lemmy.world - 10mon

That's 0.9% more than the last time I checked. I know those are still really low odds, but we can hope...

14
psud @aussie.zone - 10mon

One of the things they're doing is calculating what it's orbit would have to be to hit the Earth, and where it would have had to have been on its last orbit to be in that orbit

So they can look at any astronomical images of that part of the sky from then and see if it's in the right place

If they find images of the right part of the sky at the right time and the asteroid is not in it, they know it's not on an orbit that will hit the Earth in 2032

3
quediuspayu @lemmy.dbzer0.com - 10mon

I science podcast I follow already warned last week that the probability would go up at first as they narrow down its trajectory.
They gave the example of a fan closing, as it gets narrow, the earth represents a bigger percentage of the remaining fan. If you keep closing the fan the Earth eventually will fall outside the fan and the percentage drop to zero.

Unless it turns out that it is dead center.

1
adarza @lemmy.ca - 10mon

is there any way to hurry it along?

14
vga @sopuli.xyz - 10mon

Can we launch a satellite at it, perhaps detonate a huge nuke on it to make that chance higher?

Wait, we could just detonate all those huge nukes here right now. Show that stupid asteroid.

13
Ricky Rigatoni - 10mon

Nuke the far side of the moon and plunge it into earth. Give the asteroid inadequacy issues.

5
threelonmusketeers - 10mon

Wouldn't detonating on the forward side rather than the zenith side be most effective at lowering the perigee of the moon?

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Ricky Rigatoni - 10mon

all i remember from my ksp days is add more struts

5
Krik - 10mon

all i remember from my ksp days is add more struts boosters

Fixed it for you.

4
Ricky Rigatoni - 10mon

Alas, without the struts, the boosters shall return unto The Lord, leaving thine kerbalnauts Kerbinbound.

3
Comment105 @lemm.ee - 10mon

You think humanity would be in this spot if the average person had a fucking clue whatsoever?

3
Rivalarrival @lemmy.today - 10mon

Tell me you've never played Kerbal Space Program without telling me you've never played Kerbal Space Program.

2
Miles O'Brien - 10mon

Project Sundial can still make a comeback.

4
chemical_cutthroat @lemmy.world - 10mon

Jesus is coming back and he's pissed...

13
Floshie @lemmy.blahaj.zone - 10mon

should I mention "don't look up" ?

11
expatriado @lemmy.world - 10mon

that was Trump chances in 2016...

11
TheObviousSolution - 10mon

Those are better odds than the lottery. Has anyone set up a betting pool yet?

9
casmael @lemm.ee - 10mon

Okay so how big is this meteor then

9
GooberEar @lemmy.wtf - 10mon

It's around 1000 millimeteors

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everett @lemmy.ml - 10mon

Exactly one meteor wide. Do you need the height as well?

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dellish @lemmy.world - 10mon

Is it meteoric?

3
everett @lemmy.ml - 10mon

The meteorest.

1
Norgoroth - 10mon

130 - 400 meters

7
threelonmusketeers - 10mon

Listed in the article:

Scientists estimate that 2024 YR4 is between 130 to 300 feet (40 and 90 meters) wide

6
SpongeBorgCubePants - 10mon

How many giraffes is it tho

5
threelonmusketeers - 10mon

!anythingbutmetric@discuss.tchncs.de

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Comment105 @lemm.ee - 10mon

Fuck, I was hoping for a 10-15 km wide one.

4
psud @aussie.zone - 10mon

Were it to hit it would hit like a large nuke

2
llamacoffee @lemmy.world - 10mon

Wow this is the most depressing comment section I've ever seen.

7
Swedneck @discuss.tchncs.de - 10mon

it's just standard "haha self harm funi", it's so easy to post and reliably gets a few upvotes, so it's just a kneejerk response to posts like these.

3
threelonmusketeers - 10mon

Yeah, even for Lemmy this is bad. I hope most of them are semi-facetious?

3
JohnDClay @sh.itjust.works - 10mon

Great video, the probability will keep going up till it goes way down. Unless it doesn't.

1
HappyStarDiaz @real.lemmy.fan - 10mon

Is there any way to speed this up

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Uranus_Hz @lemm.ee - 10mon

Those are rookie numbers. Gotta pump those numbers up.

6
InFerNo @lemmy.ml - 10mon

If we are able to nudge an asteroid, would an asteroid of this size nudge the earth?

4
threelonmusketeers - 10mon

Technically the solar system is a multi-body system, and everything nudges everything else, but the mass of the earth is far greater than the mass of the asteroid, to the point that it doesn't matter.

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oleorun - 10mon

Eh, Paradise and Silo got me ready for the future.

3
Yawweee877h444 @lemmy.world - 10mon

Sigh. Why can't it be 109%

This place sucks.

3
psud @aussie.zone - 10mon

It's not big enough to fix anything. If it hits, it won't hit America or Europe

It's in the big nuke scale of energy, enough to do a lot of damage to a small area. Were it to hit a city, the city would need a lot of rebuilding. Were it to hit, few people would be in danger as we will have years of warning. The only people in the impact area would be "storm chasers" travelling to see the impact

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FreakinSteve @lemmy.world - 10mon

Can we speed that up a bit?

3
Majorllama - 10mon

Which direction do I need to fart to up those numbers?

3
uxia @midwest.social - 10mon

Reading this headline instantly brought a huge smile to my face 😁

2
Hobbes @startrek.website - 10mon

Is there any way to get it here sooner?

1
GrumpyDuckling @sh.itjust.works - 10mon

I wonder if the "important" people know the chances are higher, so they're going for broke in order to build their escape ship.

0
DragonTypeWyvern @midwest.social - 10mon

Fucking finally goddamn

-2