An asteroid the size of a refrigerator might hit the Earth a day before the November 3 US elections.
Celebrity astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson informed his followers on Sunday that an asteroid is headed towards us. It will likely hit our planet just before election day.
Tyson called it “diameter the size of a refrigerator” and added that this size isn’t large enough to cause any real damage to our planet.
The host of “Cosmos” also noted that the space rock is hurtling towards us at a speed of 25,000 miles/hour or 40,233 kilometres an hour. The asteroid is known as ‘2018VPI’ and may enter Earth’s atmosphere a day before the US election, November 2.
Tyson described it as, “It may buzz-cut Earth on Nov. 2, the day before the Presidential Election.”
The 2018VP1 was discovered two years ago. It is an Apollo-class asteroid which is a family of space rocks flying close to Earth. And there are many such rocks. The VP1 has a two-year orbital period and is estimated to come within nearly 5,000 kilometres to Earth.
VP1 is about 1 metre hence it is not dangerous. According to NASA’s potentially hazardous space objects, the asteroid should be at least 140 metres or 460 feet to cause any amount of harm on Earth.
There is only 1 in 240 odds that it will actually hit the Earth. Most likely, it will safely flyby. Even if it does enter Earth, it will disintegrate, and some people may see a nice meteor show.