NASA Claims Supposed Election Day Asteroid is a Negligible Threat

While CBS NEWS headline reads ‘An asteroid will pass extremely close to Earth the day before the election’ and  Netizens raise alarm over another ‘catastrophe’ at the end of the year, NASA says No, Asteroid could strike Earth before election day but won’t cause any major damage. ‘There are loads of threats to democracy; asteroid 2018 VP1 is not one of them.’

Of course, there’s a space rock called 2018 VP1 and it will pass close to earth on Nov. 2, the day before Americans cast their votes in the Elections. (The asteroid was discovered in 2018 and this is exactly why it’s named 2018VP1. At that time, it was about 450,000 kilometers {280,000 miles} away from planet Earth but is now on its way back around and towards us again, after a two-year orbital period.)

 But, according to NASA, it isn’t a cause for alarm at all. There’s no need to worry about this particular asteroid because it poses no threat to earth.

NASA Asteroid Watch said in a tweet recently that the asteroid has a 0.41% chance of entering the atmosphere of the earth. But even if it does, it would most probably fall apart before it was able to make an impact. The asteroid is not large enough to do any significant damage. So, we all can relax and take a chill pill!

Asteroids as small as 2018VP1 cannot survive for too long here. They will burn up in the atmosphere easily even before they make it to the ground. But then, we cannot be asleep at the switch with asteroids, especially the ones that pose a risk to earth.

Now, we can at least put the stories about ‘deadly asteroids’ aside and look forward to the US November election.