Fear of Space Can Fuel Conspiracy Theories, Researcher Warns

There are many home-grown problems on Earth, but there’s still time to worry about bad things arriving from above. The most recent is the asteroid 2024 YR4, which could be a “city killer” if it hits a heavily populated area of our planet in the early years of the next decade. The chances of that happening are now estimated to be around 0.001 percent. But there was a brief moment after the asteroid’s discovery last year when the estimated danger of a direct hit crossed the 1 percent threshold of comfortable risk. There’s a need to worry about planetary defense…