by Starlink satellites are at risk when a “city murderer” fasteroid fell against the moon, experts warned.
The European Space Agency said in January that the 200 -foot space rock, which was 4 years old in 2024, had a slim chance in December 2032 to hit the earth, but has since downgraded the threat since then.
According to new data from the James Webb Space Telescope, one of 23 (4.3 percent) chance that it could hit the moon instead.
The effects would probably have a 1,000-yard crater from a wide influence and race large amounts of moon rock towards the earth.
On Tuesday, the MPs were informed that the earth, although it is unlikely that the collision will be influenced, could be threatened the emitted debris in a low orbit.
This includes the 7,500 satellites of Elon Musks Starlink, who shine the Internet to Great Britain.
Dr. Cyrielle opitom, specialist for small solar systems at the University of Edinburgh, informed the science, innovation and technology committee that British space assets could be threatened due to a lunar effect.
“New models have shown for the YR4, if it hits the moon, this could have an impact,” she said.
“Not on Earth – we may have a spectacular meteor shower that would be pretty – but that could mean an impact on satellites in a low earth orbit, for example Starlink satellites.
“They have the effects of small particles in the room, but they would receive the equivalent of 10 years within a few days.
“So it is not only the effects here, but also in Great Britain in space.”
A Pre-Print published by the University of Western Ontario in June suggested that 2024yr4 could hit the moon at 29,000 miles per hour and that millions of pounds could bring up to a third of an centimeter width.
The researchers said that the large amount of particles could be a risk of space vehicles, especially for those in a low earth orbit, a room region that extends from around 100 miles to 1,200 miles above the earth.
In addition to thousands of Starlink satellites, the area is also home to the international space station and the Chinese space station in Tiangong as well as many other critical communication satellites.
Chris Lintott, professor of astrophysics at the University of Oxford, told MPs: “Currently there is an opportunity of four percent who have the chance on December 22, 2032 [the asteroid] will meet the moon surface
“Parts of the moon fly into space. A crater of about 1 km and a great excitement for astronomers will create, there is some little probability that some debris may affect the earth.
“Although this has no influence on the surface, there are threats to satellites.”
The asteroid is large enough to be referred to as a “city murderer” because it would lead to devastation if it ended up in a populated area.
The astronomers initially feared a chance of 3.1 percent to hit the earth, the highest of a large asteroid, but the risk has fallen to 0.0017 percent since then – approximately one of 59,000.
Most asteroids that hit the earth are about 15 to 20 feet wide and crash about every five years. Although they cause an explosion that resembles the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, they tend to fall into the ocean or unpopulated areas in which they do little damage.
There has never been a human death from an asteroid strike, although more than 1,000 people were injured in February 2013 during the Chelyabinsk meteor in Russia.
“We were lucky in the past 50 years that we had no significant influence on land,” said Prof. Lintott.
“Chelyabinsk showed the effects that this would have if it came across a city.
“We speak of something that could threaten life on the planet or in civilization, even though we think that things that are big enough to do only ten or hundreds of millions of years.”
Experts said there was no chance that an asteroid that hits the moon could throw the satellite out of orbit and influence the tides of the earth.
The moon takes the influence of around 60 percent of the asteroids that would otherwise hit the earth.
Dr. Sarah Crowther, a scientific fellow in Planetary Science at the University of Manchester, said: “Asteroids are a credible threat and could be catastrophic. The good news is that there will be no serious threats in the next 100 years.
“But we know that the earth has been hit in the past and that the dinosaurs have died out due to an asteroid impact, so that there will be potential in the future.”
The Vera C Rubin Observatory in Chile, which published his first pictures this week, will carry out a scan of the sky in the next few years and hopes to map around 90 percent of all asteroids in the solar system.
The United States also plan to bring an infrared telescope onto the market that could take asteroids that go from the direction of the sun to earth that is currently not visible.
In 2022, NASA made the first successful asteroid transfer test, Dart, who showed that it is possible to easily change the orbit of a room rock.
“We start to deal with this threat, so this can be a risk that we can retire in the next 20 to 30 years,” added Prof. Lintott.
