Could this year end with a bang?: NASA says asteroid headed for Earth
- By Web Desk -
- Aug 23, 2020
An asteroid is projected to come close to Earth later this year and may hit one day before the US presidential election in November, according to NASA data.
The celestial object, known as 2018VP1, is expected to pass near Earth on Nov 2, according to the Center for Near Objects Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The flying space object is 6.5 feet in diameter, according to NASA data, and first identified at the Palomar Observatory in California two years ago.
It’s 2020 so an asteroid is headed toward Earth on the day before the election. NASA says the chance of it actually impacting Earth is 0.41%, so you can pretty much count on it. pic.twitter.com/7KkZOBrYd7
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) August 22, 2020
The space agency says there were three potential impacts “based on 21 observations spanning 12.968 days, with the chance of a direct impact less than 1 per cent.”
The agency has determined the asteroid probably won’t have a deep impact, let alone wipe out the planet.