In December, astronomers recognized asteroid YR4 posed a risk of hitting Earth in 2032, raising alarms about its destructive potential. Although it was later deemed non-threatening in February, this period marked the International Asteroid Warning Network's first activation since its inception in 2014, showcasing the advancements made in monitoring near-Earth objects (NEOs). The formation of this global alert system was triggered by past events, notably the Chelyabinsk meteor explosion, which highlighted the need for preparedness against such celestial threats. Efforts to catalog dangerous NEOs have expanded significantly in the last decade.
The fact is that humanity does have a system that has been put in place in the last decade, essentially, and it worked for YR4.
We did not see that one coming. There was no warning until there was actually a fireball in the sky being caught on all of those dashboard cameras on people's cars.
Astronomers have known about the threat posed by NEOs since the 1970s, but efforts to catalogue potentially dangerous asteroids and meteors have only seriously materialized in the past decade.
The Planetary Defense Coordination Office has identified 873 NEOs larger than one kilometer, a size that could be a disaster of the scale of anything we've seen.
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