With the current chaotic state of the world, there’s probably a few people out there who would take their chances against an asteroid. It could give us the chance to start fresh, to appreciate all the good things in life and swiftly obliterate the bad things. For those hoping that’s the case, there’s a slim chance that it could actually happen, according to NASA.
Okay, an asteroid hitting Earth would probably be more catastrophic than hopeful, but with everything else 2020 has thrown at us, I’m trying to find a bright side for this news.
The Center for Near Earth Objects Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been tracking a celestial object known as 2018VP1, and has determined that it will come close to Earth on November 2 – the day before the US election. Though NASA hasn’t said the asteroid definitely won’t hit us, the agency has made it pretty clear that it’s unlikely. It says there are three potential impacts, but ‘based on 21 observations spanning 12.968 days’, it determined the chances of the asteroid hitting Earth are 0.41%, CNN reports.
According to NASA’s close approach database, asteroid 2018VP1 is more likely to come between 4,700 miles and 260,000 miles from Earth. On the off chance it makes it to our atmosphere, it would appear as an extremely bright meteor and break up into tiny pieces.