A huge asteroid “plummeting” towards Earth will supposedly make impact on December 22, 2032.
The 100 metre-wide object triggered planetary defences for the first time ever when it was discovered at the end of last year.
Fears have grown about the asteroid – Dubbed the ‘Asteroid 2024 YR4’ – since it was first spotted through automated telescope observations, after expert astronomers admitted that it has a chance of hitting Earth in seven years time.
However, scientists feel the likelihood of the asteroid causing any problems are low.
Colin Snodgrass, a professor of planetary astronomy at the University of Edinburgh has said the asteroid will “most likely pass by harmlessly”.
He added: “It just deserves a little more attention with telescopes until we can confirm that.
“The longer we follow its orbit, the more accurate our future predictions of its trajectory become.”
Paul Chodas, director of Nasa’s Centre for Near Earth Object Studies added: “We are not worried at all, because of this 99% chance it will miss.
“But it deserves attention.”
Mr Chodas said scientists are poring over sky surveys from 2016, when predictions show the asteroid also ventured close. If scientists can find the space rock in images from then, they should be able to determine whether it will hit or miss the planet.
Mr Chodas added: “If we don’t find that detection, the impact probability will just move slowly as we add more observations.”
Edinburgh Live reports that although we’ve got until 2032 to figure out if we need to blast it away from our atmosphere, we might want to take some advice on what not to do from a Netflix movie.
The plot of Don’t Look Up follows two astronomers, played by Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio, who discovered an earth destroying comet and go on a big US media tour to warn everyone around them.
It’s discovered by fictional PhD student Kate Dibiasky (Lawrence) and Dr Mindy (DiCaprio). They strive to be taken seriously by the government and the world about the threat.
Though, their pleas are turned into a circus with thanks to caricature US talk show hosts, an apathetic baseball cap wearing President Orlean (Meryl Streep) and billionaire CEO tech sidekick Peter Isherwell (Mark Rylance).
The pair realise that the comet will make contact with earth in six months unless something is done to stop it in its tracks. And if not? The comet is large enough to cause a global extinction event – meaning that everything and everyone on earth will die.
In the Netflix film, governments around the world eventually look to band together to stop the comet of mass destruction – including the likes of countries that usually butt heads; China, Russia and the US.
The plan is to launch a nuclear missile strike at the comet in hopes of dismantling or destroying it before impact on earth. But, if it does hit us, it could cause ‘city-destroying’ devastation.
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