NASA has warned that an impending asteroid could strike Earth with potentially devastating consequences, identifying the countries most at risk in a recent report.
The 2024 YR4 asteroid, discovered at the end of 2024, is currently heading toward Earth and could reach the planet by 2032.
Its size – estimated to be between 40 and 90 meters wide – could cause immense damage if it impacts Earth with the force of 500 atomic bombs, enough to wipe out entire cities.
Although the odds remain relatively low, the likelihood of a collision with Earth recently increased from one percent to 2.3 percent, sparking fears among those living in a “risk corridor” identified by NASA.
Scientists say that if it hits Earth, it will likely be in northern South America, across the Pacific Ocean, southern Asia, the Arabian Sea, or sub-Saharan Africa.
NASA has identified India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador as the countries most at risk.
One Arab state was also named as a potential target: Sudan, a vast African country roughly the size of France, Spain, Sweden, Norway, and Germany combined, which has experienced multiple incidents with meteors over the years.
One of the country’s most recent experiences with memories was in 2008, when the 4.1-meter-wide 2008 TC3 asteroid exploded about 37 kilometres above Sudan, leaving fragments scattered across the Nubian Desert.
A meteoroid is a fragment of an asteroid or comet that travels through space. When it enters Earth’s atmosphere, it can fragment into smaller pieces as it burns up, creating a meteor.
The 600 meteorites that struck Sudan, known as Almahata Sitta, marked the first time scientists successfully predicted an asteroid impact before it entered Earth’s atmosphere, though they were slightly off in pinpointing the final impact site.
Almahata Sitta – as the meteorite became known – sparked a wave of scavengers searching for fragments, each containing thousands of micro-diamonds and other precious minerals, fetching huge sums on the market.
The rock was said to have belonged to a lost planet that was one of the first bodies to orbit the earth, millions of years ago.
