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    Newly spotted asteroid has 1% chance of hitting Earth in 2032
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    Newly spotted asteroid has 1% chance of hitting Earth in 2032

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    29 Comments

    6. drivelhead on

      Let me just fix that headline:

      “Asteroid is like all the others and isn’t going to hit Earth”

    7. scrffynrfhrdr on

      My wife gave birth to my first child last year. I picked a really bad time to start caring about the future.

    8. ALA02 on

      Here come totally original comments “oh those odds are too short”, “good, humanity was a mistake”, etc. Same thing, every time something like this is posted

    10. oskanta on

      Since 90% of the commenters can’t be bothered to read the article, here’s the size:

      > First spotted last month by a telescope in Chile, the near-Earth asteroid — designated 2024 YR4 — is estimated to be 130 to 330 feet (40 to 100 metres) across.

      For reference, the Tunguska event asteroid was about 50-60m.

    12. pianistafj on

      Damn. That means we’re gonna have to see Mahommes win 7 more Super Bowls. I might be rooting for the asteroid at that point.

    13. Quick_Interaction608 on

      Oh okay, this is definitely going to happen then. These days I simply ask myself, “what’s the worst thing that could possibly happen” and assume that it will, hasn’t failed me in a while

    14. fenderampeg on

      Ya know, everyone is joking here but a 1% chance is still a chance. We really need to work on our detection and mitigation strategies for these things.
      I mean, it’s gonna happen at some point right?

    15. justaguytrying2getby on

      Interesting, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one listed with a Torino Scale of 3 before

    16. BiggieTwiggy1two3 on

      From the article: “Earth gets clobbered by an asteroid this size every few thousand years, according to ESA, with the potential for severe damage. That is why this one now tops ESA’s asteroid risk list.”

    17. iwishihadnobones on

      *The asteroid came closest to Earth on Christmas Day — passing within roughly 500,000 miles (800,000km) of Earth, about twice the distance to the moon. It was discovered two days later.*

      It is concerning that it was this close to us and we didn’t even notice until two days after the fact. We are basically flying blind here

    19. Scrubface on

      If I die at 42 (the answer to the meaning of life, the universe, and all things) during a “don’t look up” kind of scenario…We all live in a simulation…and it’s fucked.

    20. nopoonintended on

      1/100 seems really high to be honest for a chance of leveling a whole city / filling out atmosphere with the elements etc best case it just lands in the ocean no?

    21. Petdogdavid1 on

      You know, after reading that headline… Just don’t fucking tell me about it. Make it a surprise.

    22. Grunblau on

      Just in time for me to not receive Social Security. Amazing how things work out sometimes…

    24. Riles4prez on

      Kinda depressing to see all the jokes here. 1% is alarming. The article said it could drop to before then, so that’s good. 1/100 chance to kill millions is scary.

    25. Bouche_Audi_Shyla on

      They’ve known this asteroid was coming for years. It was featured on an episode of The Universe about ten years ago.

    26. okuboheavyindustries on

      I’ve seen an estimate as high as 6% chance of Earth impact from an astronomer who was able to narrow down the orbit with some old negative sightings. Negative sightings are when you look at old images that could have potentially caught the asteroid on a previous orbit and it doesn’t appear in the image.

    27. AVBforPrez on

      That sucks, but if we find the best ragtag team of blue collar miners and inexplicably send them into space to destroy the asteroid using nukes, we’ll probably be fine….

    29. thisaccountgotporn on

      Nuke alert lol. I’ve always imagined accidental nuclear exchange following a misunderstood asteroid impact