An astrophysicist with pop culture appeal is warning that an asteroid could reach Earth prior to next month’s Election Day but that it won’t be large enough to warrant any cause for concern.
In an Instagram post shared on Sunday, Neil deGrasse Tyson, who is the director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City, said, “Verified Asteroid 2018VP1, a refrigerator-sized space-rock, is hurtling towards us at more than 25,000 mi/hr.”
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration already alerted the presence of the asteroid in August, which it claims is about 6 feet in diameter and has only a 0.41% chance of entering the Earth’s atmosphere.
“It currently has a 0.41% chance of entering our planet’s atmosphere, but if it did, it would disintegrate due to its extremely small size,” NASA said.
Even if it did enter the Earth’s atmosphere, experts suspect it would disintegrate before causing any damage. The last known asteroid to hit Earth was two years ago, when 2018 LA, a 5-foot asteroid, landed in southern Africa.
“It may buzz-cut Earth on Nov. 2, the day before the Presidential Election,” Tyson continued in the post. “But it’s not big enough to cause harm. So if the World ends in 2020, it won’t be the fault of the Universe.”
