this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2025
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[–] [email protected] 8 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

This is the expected path the probability is going to take. Scott Manley made a great video on that.

Basically the area in which the asteroid is going to be includes the earth. When you shrink this area earth is going to take up more space, unless it left the cone. I.e. measurements increase the likelihood until they don't.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Scott Manley... Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time

[–] [email protected] 3 points 18 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

As if fascists and climate change wheren't enough. Here, have an asteroid!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

What if it lands an the fascists and dust in the atmosphere cancels climate change for a couple of decades. Could that work?

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] isles 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I don't subscribe to your death cult.

[–] riodoro1 1 points 22 hours ago

I just hope it’s bigger then they think.

[–] shalafi 31 points 1 day ago (3 children)

3.1% odds are nothing to sneeze at. Ever played D&D?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

XCom vets know what's about to happen

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It'll climb to 95% and then phase through the earth to somehow miss entirely?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Either that or devastating critical strike. No in between

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

roll for save vs. asteroid on a D30...

Balls.

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[–] DarkFuture 18 points 1 day ago

Good.

Up those numbers.

We're awful.

[–] subarctictundra 8 points 1 day ago
[–] iAvicenna 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

is this the aliens going "welp they elected Trump again time to press the reset button"

[–] aeronmelon 111 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Where do I donate to help the asteroid?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago (4 children)
[–] Oderus 2 points 23 hours ago

Mar-a-Lago would be a great choice.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago

It will be in 2032, so near the end of Trump's third term.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago

first hit moscow and take an insane bounce and hit washington DC please. that's all I'm asking.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Bruh the DC metro area is statistically one of the most anti Trump places in the US. Let's root for it to hit Maralago instead.

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[–] regrub 64 points 2 days ago (26 children)

Is there any way we can speed it up?

[–] [email protected] 38 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

Let's point all our magnets towards the sky!

🧲🌠

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 2 days ago (8 children)

This has been a good test of our planetary defense procedures, and will be an even better test on the off chance the probability resolves to 100%. I'm rooting for an impact trajectory, since we'd either get to see humanity's first real asteroid deflection or witness the largest asteroid impact in over a century. (Hopefully in the ocean or a sparsely populated area!)

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Unfortunately, I half expect that if we get a 100% chance, governments are going to see where it's going to land (sea/Africa) and decide it's not worth the spend/let's see what happens if we let it hit.

Really hope I'm wrong, but I don't have a lot of faith in humanity anymore.

[–] SamboT 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Why would we mitigate the asteroid if its cheaper to clean up after a non-consequential impact?

[–] Lightor 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

To test our ability to stop it. If one was going to hit a major city, that's not the best situation to be trying something out for the first time.

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[–] AdolfSchmitler 4 points 1 day ago (5 children)

If the cost of a recall for a defective car is higher than the cost to settle wrongful death lawsuits, they don't do a recall.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 18 hours ago

A recall costs money for a corporation to perform. A project like astroid deflection is an opportunity to funnel more government spending into the pockets of defense and space contractors. These are not the same.

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[–] Eagle0110 22 points 2 days ago (1 children)

And hopefully it can be highly rich in rare minerals, so that when the ashes of WW3 finally settle down, at least the future generations of humans or not-human sapient entities will at least get something good out of the whole ridiculous mess we're currently in lol

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 days ago (3 children)
[–] chuckleslord 15 points 1 day ago (4 children)

A direct hit would be about the size of a fission nuclear bomb. Devastating for a city, but no regional or country-wide impacts, let alone globally

[–] Maggoty 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not even a little global cooling?

As a treat?

[–] chuckleslord 5 points 1 day ago

If anything, it might get a tiny bit warmer

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[–] vane 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

How many people need to die before someone hits the Earth with a rock ?

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 days ago (5 children)

From the article

In a new update, the space agency has increased the chances of asteroid 2024 YR4 colliding with Earth, with the probability of impact rising to 3.1 per cent or one-in-32 odds of impact β€” the highest probability of a collision yet.

IE - 3%.

3% events happen all of the time!

The article stresses that this probability has been going up over the past year or so, which is likely neither here nor there, but I can totally understand how it’s alarming in a post-COVID world.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 days ago

Don’t look up

[–] Nutteman 21 points 2 days ago

Don't threaten me with a good time

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