Measles Outbreaks, Asteroid Risks and Fish Friends

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.3 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

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Summary

The black hole at the center of our galaxy is emitting near-constant, random light. The European Space Agency has approved astronaut candidate John McFall, making McFall the first physically disabled candidate to be cleared to fly. The risk of asteroid 2024 YR4 hitting Earth rose to more than 3 percent and then dipped down to 1.5 percent with new data—our February 12 episode explained why this risk has been changing. Recommended reading: Hear our February 12 episode about asteroid 2024 YR4: https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/what-we-know-about-2024-yr4-the-asteroid-with-a-2-percent-chance-of-impact/ Read more of guest host Allison Parshall’s exceptional coverage: https://www.scientificamerican.com/author/allison-parshall/ E-mail us at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter. Science Quickly is produced by Allison Parshall, Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Allison Parshall. Our show is edited by Naeem Amarsy with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Race the rudder, raise the sails, raise the sales!
0:05.0	Captain, an unidentified ship approaching, over.
0:07.0	Roger that.
0:08.0	Wait, is that an enterprise sales solution?
0:13.0	Reach sales professionals, not professional sailors.
0:17.0	With LinkedIn ads, you can target the right people by industry, job title, and more.
0:21.4	To get 100 pounds off your first campaign, go to LinkedIn.com slash lead to claim your credit.
0:26.7	That's LinkedIn.com slash lead. Terms and conditions apply.
0:32.2	Happy Monday, listeners, for Scientific American Science Quickly, this is Alison Partial, filling in for Rachel Feltman.
0:39.3	Let's get the week started by catching up on some of the latest science news.
0:47.3	First, a quick update on our favorite ominous asteroid. The rock dubbed 2024 YR4 briefly had an even higher probability of hitting
0:56.5	Earth than the last time we mentioned it.
0:58.2	Early last week, NASA pegged the Rock's chances of smashing into us in 2032 at more than
1:03.1	3%.
1:04.3	That was the highest impact probability ever recorded for an asteroid of its size or larger,
1:09.0	but you can relax because as of last Thursday,
1:11.4	that estimate had fallen back down
1:12.9	to a reassuring 1.5%.
1:15.4	It's totally understandable if you find all of this
1:18.0	wishy-washiness a bit disconcerting,
1:20.6	but rest assured that things are playing out
1:22.5	more or less exactly the way that scientists told us to expect.
	...

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