Could 2020 get any worst than what it already have? As we struggle to navigate through the Coronavirus pandemic, civil unrest, and bad weather, NASA now says an astroid may hit earth on Election Day.
NASA says there are three potential impacts, but “based on 21 observations spanning 12.968 days,” the agency has determined the asteroid probably — phew! — won’t have a deep impact, let alone bring Armageddon.
The chance of it hitting us is just 0.41%, data show.
2018 VP1 is an Apollo near-Earth asteroid roughly 2 meters (7 feet) in diameter. It has a 0.41% chance (1 in 240) of impacting Earth on 2 November 2020.
It was discovered on 3 November 2018 when the asteroid was about 0.003 AU (450,000 km; 280,000 mi) from Earth and had a solar elongation of 165 degrees.
The asteroid has a short 12.9 day observation arc and has not been detected since November 2018.
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It is not categorized as a potentially hazardous object given the estimated size of 2–4 meters in diameter is smaller than the threshold for potentially hazardous objects which are estimated at more than 140 meters in diameter.
An Earth-impact by this asteroid, assuming it is a common primitive chondrite, might rattle some windows after an airburst and/or drop pebble-sized meteorites on roof tops after dark flight.
