- NASA predicts that in October 2024, a “lost asteroid” could make landfall on Earth. Since its first discovery in 2007, the asteroid known as 2007 FT3 has eluded scientific observation.
NASA has issued a warning that there is a significant chance that a “lost asteroid” will strike Earth in 2024. 2007 FT3, an asteroid, is currently circling the solar system and may collide with Earth by the end of the next year.
NASA has already discovered asteroids hurtling toward Earth, which is not the first time they will do so. More than 120 known short-period near-Earth comets (NECs) and over 32,000 known near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) exist. If not effectively avoided, each of these cosmic components has the potential to devastate Earth in some way.
NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) monitors most identified asteroids. According to estimates from the space agency’s department, the Earth might be struck by the asteroid as early as October 2024.
2007 FT3: “Lost asteroid” may make landfall on Earth
Scientists discovered the 2007 FT3, an item they named after seeing it float through space in 2007. When the object’s flight path was lost, scientists could not locate and identify it as an asteroid. After the asteroid’s brief observation arc of just 1.2 days, the astronomers could not find it through focused observations. What’s frightening is that it has yet to be spotted since 2007.
According to estimates by NASA experts, this asteroid has most likely returned to Earth. They add that there’s a good chance 2007 FT3 will strike Earth in the upcoming year. However, what is the likelihood? NASA, however, has measured it.
NASA estimates that the likelihood of 2007 FT3 hitting Earth in October 2024 is 0.0000087 percent, or 1 in 11.5 million. Another option exists: it will strike Earth in March 2024, with a probability of 0.0000096%, or 1 in 10 million. Under any scenario, the asteroid might explode with enough energy to blow up 2.6 billion tons of TNT.
How much risk does it pose?
According to NASA’s calculations, the energy produced after the collision of an asteroid with Earth can result in significant regional destruction in both scenarios. Still, the damage would not be severe enough to affect the entire world.
According to the space agency, it will likely hit Earth on October 5, 2024.
Additional asteroids could cause this destruction as they get closer to Earth.
According to NASA, one object, designated 29075 (1950 DA), is the second-riskiest rock. After its discovery in 1950, scientists lost sight of it for fifty years before retracing its steps. Its odds of striking Earth on March 16, 2880, a very long period in the future, are 0.0029 percent, or 1 in 34,500.
