Elon Musk says it’s ‘only a matter of time’ as he explains why humans need a ‘second planet’

This fear over humanity’s destruction isn’t exactly unfounded in recent years.

This is clear when you remember the threat of nuclear war is constantly looming when nations with nuclear arsenals butt heads. As well as this, the pandemic is still a recent memory and showed how quickly normal life can change due to a rapidly spreading disease.

But more topically, asteroid fears have recently skyrocketed as NASA has continued to give updates on a ‘city-destroying’ asteroid that could strike as soon as seven years.

2024 YR4 was first spotted after it set off automated asteroid warning systems in December 2024, and astronomers have been tracking it ever since.

According to NASA, the space object measures around 130 to 300 feet across (40 to 90 meters), and should it hit Earth, the force would be hundreds of times the force of the Hiroshima bomb.

Most concerningly, the initial probability of the space rock striking Earth was just 1.2 percent but updates have seen this number increase to as high as 3.2 percent.

However, let’s hope that the percentage strike number starts going back down over the next few years.