Don’t lose sleep over asteroid impact odds: Planetary scientist

NASA has been revising the odds of an asteroid hitting the Earth in 2032, with recent estimates increasing the chance to 3.1 percent. But planetary scientist Terik Daly says there’s no reason to panic.

Daly joined NewsNation to discuss the possibility that the asteroid, which has been dubbed a city killer, could hit the Earth in a few years.

“This asteroid poses a risk,” he said. “It needs to be monitored but does not pose a threat that people need to be losing sleep over right now.”

Daly added that the reason for the changing predictions has to do with monitoring of the asteroid’s path as it approaches Earth. Scientists are looking for a region of uncertainty where the asteroid might be.

As that region gets smaller, Earth takes up more space, raising the odds of impact. But, Daly said, it will then shrink enough that Earth will no longer be in the region, taking the odds down to zero.

If the asteroid were to impact our planet, it would not have the same type of impact as the asteroid that allegedly killed the dinosaurs. The asteroid is roughly the same size as one that exploded over Tunguska in Siberia in 1908.

“If it hit a metropolitan area, it would cause a region of localized devastation,” Daly said. “People should not be thinking this is a civilization-ending event.”