At the moment, we don’t know the exact size of 2024 YR4, or even if it's a rubble pile asteroid too – but hitting rubble pile asteroids with a spacecraft like DART could potentially generate a ...

At the moment, we don’t know the exact size of 2024 YR4, or even if it's a rubble pile asteroid too – but hitting rubble pile asteroids with a spacecraft like DART could potentially generate a ...

However, many asteroids are known to be rubble piles, essentially collections of rocks held together loosely by gravity, such as the asteroid Bennu that was visited by NASA’s ORISIS-REx spacecraft.

He noted that many asteroids are loose rubble piles of sand, dirt and boulders ... there might not be enough time to significantly alter the asteroid’s path, warned the scientist.

Dai said the potential death toll "mainly depends on where the asteroid impact occurs." Scientists know a great deal about Bennu, considered a "rubble pile" asteroid — a loose amalgamation of ...

However, hitting rubble pile asteroids with a spacecraft like DART could create a cloud of debris that might still head toward Earth. 'Nobody wants to accidentally "disrupt" an asteroid because ...