Now I'm wondering if these five words were continuously present throughout the article's history, or if they were removed and independently added back at a later date!

Out of curiosity, I compared the current Ship of Theseus article against its very first version, and the most significant similarity between the two is as follows:

FIRST:
"**Some of its boards rotted** and had to be replaced."

CURRENT:
"Over time, **some of its boards rotted** and were replaced."

Reminds me of playing Sim Copter back in the day!

I don't disagree with you about where this joking comes from, but by and large those making those jokes would not be the people most affected by 2024 YR4 if it did hit Earth. In particular it feels in poor taste to root for an event that would devastate others but only marginally affect oneself.

And a few close-up images, all from hubblesite.org

Instead of the fake images, here is an actual image taken by the HST:

hubblesite.org/contents/med...