2025-02-12
13 分钟Foreign for Scientific American Science Quickly, I'm Rachel Feltman.
Have you heard that an asteroid might just maybe smack into Earth sometime in the next few years?
The rumors are true, though perhaps not as frightening as you might think.
The fact is that this asteroid, called 2024 YR4, is both literally and figuratively a moving target.
As of February 11,
the European Space Agency estimated
that the space Rock has a 2% chance of colliding with Earth on December 22,
2032.
That's a slightly higher risk than you'll hear quoted in the episode that follows
because we recorded it last week.
Why are those numbers changing so quickly?
We promise this isn't a matter of the risk just going higher and higher as time goes on.
It's a lot more complicated than that.
Here to explain what's going on with this potentially hazardous asteroid is Lee Billings,
a senior editor covering space and physics for Scientific American.
Lee, thanks so much for coming on to chat.
It's my pleasure as always, Rachel.
So there's an asteroid with a very low chance of hitting us.
Why did this make such a big.
Splash in the news?