India In The 'Risk Zone' If Asteroid 2024 YR4 Hits Earth — How 'The City Destroyer' Is Being Tracked

Asteroid 2024 YR4, with a 2% chance of impact, will pass very close to Earth in December 2032. India is identified in the potential "risk corridor" along with several other countries.

Asteroid Alert: Space agencies NASA and ESA have warned that a giant asteroid, 2024 YR4, will pass very close to our planet, and it might even hit a part of Earth — a probability that has increased to 2% from the initial 1% estimated at the time the space rock was discovered. The asteroid is said to be around 40 to 100 metres wide, and is likely to pass by Earth in December 2032. 

The giant 2024 YR4 now has a name on the internet — “the city destroyer". 

Both NASA and ESA have said the asteroid will most likely miss an impact, but scientists have still identified a "risk corridor" — places that could be affected if there were a collision. India is part of the identified territory, according to reports.  

Quoting David Rankin from NASA’s Catalina Sky Survey Project, a WIRED report said the “risk corridor” as per the current path of 2024 YR4 stretches from "northern South America, across the Pacific Ocean, to southern Asia, the Arabian Sea, and Africa". Countries that would be "at risk" include India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Sudan, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Colombia.

ALSO READ ON ABP LIVE | All About 2024 YR4 — Giant Asteroid Top On NASA-ESA Risk List

How 'The City Destroyer' Asteroid Is Being Tracked  

In size, 2024 YR4 is not much smaller compared to the “planet-killer” asteroid (measuring 10 km in diameter) that impacted Earth 66 million years ago, and made the dinosaurs extinct. But smaller rocks can also cause large-scale devastation if they actually collide with Earth. Scientists are hence working on war footing to find out all about the "city destroyer" at the earliest.

The biggest hurdle before them is the lack of time. According to the ESA, the asteroid will fade from view soon and return to sight only in 2028. The agency said it is coordinating observations of the asteroid with powerful telescopes to gather as much information as possible, and as early as possible. 

A CNN report said the asteroid will fade out of view in April, and that astronomers are now planning to use the very powerful James Webb Space Telescope to gauge the actual size and orbit of 2024 YR4.

Asteroid 2024 YR4 was first discovered on December 27, by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS, telescope in Chile's Rio Hurtado. This NASA-funded telescope scans the sky to search for near-Earth asteroids, according to the CNN report.

The estimated size of the asteroid has not changed since. The size of an asteroid is measured by the amount of sunlight the surface of the rock reflects. 

The Webb telescope is expected to provide a more accurate size of the asteroid because it sees the universe in infrared light, and will hence be able to also measure the heat the asteroid reflects, a Nature study said.

According to the CNN report, Webb will begin observations of asteroid 2024 YR4 in March, and it will be able to observe it even when the Earth-based telescopes will no longer be able to view the asteroid. 

The observatories and telescopes tracking the asteroid from Earth include the Magdalena Ridge Observatory in New Mexico, the Danish Telescope, and the Very Large Telescope in Chile, besides the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) on the Haleakalā volcano in Maui, Hawaii.