• Dr. Robin George Andrews, a UK volcanologist, warns that asteroid 2024 YR4, with a 1 in 43 chance of impacting Earth in 2032, may be too late to deflect, given its size comparable to the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the potential for catastrophic consequences depending on the impact location.
• While NASA is using the James Webb Space Telescope to observe the asteroid, the success of the DART mission in deflecting a smaller asteroid doesn't guarantee similar results with 2024 YR4, as the technique's effectiveness depends on the asteroid's composition and the precision of the impact.
• The limited deflection achieved by DART, only changing the target asteroid's velocity by 2.7 mm/s, highlights the challenges in deflecting larger, potentially more dangerous asteroids, and emphasizes the need for further research and development of effective deflection strategies.