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An artistic rendering of an asteroid or comet striking near the Moon's south pole about 3.8 billion years ago, an impact that carved out two large craters.
Is it a bird? A plane? Or a super asteroid aiming for Earth?
Scientists recently discovered the giant space rock, called asteroid 2024 YR4, is set to reach our planet on Dec. 22, 2032. The asteroid, between 130 and 300 feet wide, is big enough to devastate a city or trigger a tsunami, to say nothing of what the impact or aftershocks could do if the extraterrestrial threat struck a nuclear plant or oil refinery.
The good news: NASA predicts the chances of impact are only about 2.3%, meaning a Christmas gift may come early if the odds remain at about 98% that YR4 zooms right past us. Given that the US National Transportation Safety Board once estimated that roughly 96% of passengers survived plane accidents (mishaps, not crashes), and air safety has largely improved since that 2001 study, those odds are pretty good. Statistics on the deadliness of asteroids are quite misleading.
But here’s another spin on it: As economist Tyler Cowen put it, the chance of drawing three of a kind in a standard five-card poker game is about 2.9% – so it’s hardly an unprecedented event.
Whatever the risk, the Chinese government isn’t taking any chances. China's State Administration of Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense just posted a recruitment notice listing three available roles for a "planetary defense post.”
As fans of Chinese sci-fi writer Cixin Liu’s “Three Body Problem” may note, better an asteroid than a slow-moving armada of genocidal aliens.Jörg Prophet, AfD candidate for mayor in Nordhausen, stands in the city center.
Hard Numbers: German far right comes up short, Ukraine dreams of drones, a space rock arrives on earth, world trade slows
54.9%: In an upset, Jörg Prophet, of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, lost a promising bid for mayor of Nordhausen the office on Sunday, as incumbent Kai Buchmann kept his job, winning 54.9% of the vote. The AfD has been polling at 21.5% nationwide, but has even more support in Thuringia, which is where Nordhausen is located.
$1 billion: Ukraine wants a drone army, and it’s looking to spend more than $1 billion to get one. Drones, Ukrainian leaders say, are great for reconnaissance, dropping bombs, and self-exploding on impact – all useful things in Kyiv’s war of defense against Russia. But what are drones not so good at? Holding territory.
6.21 billion: That’s how many kilometers (3.86 billion miles) a NASA capsule traveled to deliver the largest-ever asteroid sample to American soil. The capsule landed in a Utah desert on Sunday. Scientists hope the sample will help us better understand how the solar system formed and why life occurred on Earth.
3.2%: World trade volumes dropped 3.2% in July compared to the same month last year — the steepest decline in almost three years. High inflation is crushing demand for exports, while the resulting interest rate hikes are choking off credit, fueling fears of a global economic slowdown.