NASA Specialists Propose Nuclear Bombardment of Dangerous Asteroid 0 20

NASA proposes to blow up asteroid 2024 YR4. Moreover, with a nuclear bomb. There is no time to think, it needs to be blown up to save the Moon; the Moon cannot survive this. The press has already begun to refer to the asteroid as the "city killer." In reality, things are not quite so straightforward.

In a recently published scientific article, a group of NASA scientists suggested destroying the asteroid 2024 YR4 with a nuclear strike, which has been dubbed the "city killer." They warn that action must be taken quickly to eliminate the risk of it colliding with the Moon. It seems that since scientists are saying this, we should act faster. Launch a nuclear charge into space, blow it up, save the Moon. However, there is a lot that is strange about this situation.

First of all, the asteroid 2024 YR4, with a diameter of 55 m, was discovered on December 27, 2024, by the ATLAS system located in Chile. Two days earlier, on December 25, 2024, the asteroid came close to Earth, passing at a distance of about 830,000 km from it. In cosmic terms, this is indeed close, although it is just over two distances from Earth to the Moon.

Based on the initially calculated trajectory, the JPL/CNEOS Sentry collision monitoring system identified the possibility that the asteroid would pass very close to Earth. It might even collide with it on December 22, 2032.

In China, a whole "planetary defense team" has begun to form. Reports have emerged that in the event of a collision, the asteroid is most likely to fall in Central Africa or the Atlantic Ocean, which could cause a local catastrophe with destruction within a radius of 30 kilometers. It was claimed that the threat level is "three out of ten on the Torino scale."

This sounds generally threatening, although in reality, if we quote the criteria of that very Torino scale (the table of danger levels of various celestial objects), we are faced with merely a "close approach that warrants the attention of astronomers. Calculations give a 1% and greater probability of a collision capable of causing local destruction on the surface of the Earth. It is most likely that new telescopic observations will downgrade this event to level 0. The event deserves the attention of the public and authorities if the close approach occurs within the next decade."

As it turned out, this is exactly what happened. Later forecasts, based on additional observations, showed a negligible probability of a collision with Earth in 2032, and the danger level on the Torino scale dropped to zero. There remained a small chance of a collision with the Moon, but the asteroid had already moved away on its orbit to return in four years. Most astronomers calmed down at this point – it will return, we will recalculate the trajectory, we will think...