The terrifying prediction that a ‘city-destroying’ asteroid is hurtling towards Earth has set alarm bells ringing at the world’s space agencies.
Now, a NASA scientist has predicted exactly where the asteroid 2024 YR4 could strike.
David Rankin, an engineer with the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey Project, has sketched the ‘risk corridor’ according to the asteroid’s current trajectory.
If 2024 YR4 really does hit Earth in 2032, it should fall somewhere in a narrow band stretching from northern South America across the Pacific to sub-Saharan Africa and into Asia.
Worryingly, this path extends over several densely populated regions including Chennai, India and Hainan Island, China.
Currently, NASA estimates that the asteroid has a one in 48, or 2.1 per cent, chance of colliding with the planet on December 22, 2032.
And with a diameter of up to 90 metres (300ft), or roughly the size of the Statue of Liberty, it could cause devastating damage to any populated area along the risk corridor.
If it were to strike, experts suggest it could unleash a blast equal to eight megatons of TNT – more than 500 times the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.





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