Relax. September doomsday asteroid not ending life on Earth, NASA says
An asteroid will hit the Earth this month and wipe out life as we know it? Say it isn't so! It's not, according to NASA, who said it's just another internet rumor.
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on September 22, 2015 at 8:16 PM, updated September 22, 2015 at 8:17 PM
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If you're fond of conspiracy theories, you've probably heard the one about how a giant asteroid will crash into Earth, likely near Puerto Rico, sometime before Sept. 28, ending life as we know it.
But before you head to the closest cave, it's helpful to know that NASA, the group that tracks such objects, is shooting down the rumor.
"There is no scientific basis - not one shred of evidence - that an asteroid or any other celestial object will impact Earth on those dates," said Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
In fact, NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations Program says there have been no asteroids or comets observed that would impact Earth anytime in the foreseeable future. All known Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (or PHA in NASA-speak) have less than a 0.01 percent chance of impacting Earth in the next 100 years, they add.
Chodas explains: "If there were any object large enough to do that type of destruction in September, we would have seen something of it by now."
READ MORE: When is the Supermoon? lunar eclipse, blood moon coming Sunday (September 27 2015)
The exact origin of the asteroid rumors is unknown, though many point to a 2010 letter by self-proclaimed prophet Rev. Efrain Rodriguez who told NASA he had received a revelation about an asteroid headed to Puerto Rico. The rumor then became that the U.S. government was building hidden bunkers to protect "the elite" and keeping information away from the public to avoid mass hysteria.
NASA pointed out that it's no stranger to such end-of-the-world rumors. In 2011, there were rumors comet Elenin would hit the earth, followed by claims the end of the Mayan calendar on Dec. 21, 2012 signaled a giant asteroid was headed this way. Earlier this year, asteroids 2004 BL86 and 2014 YB35 were said to be on dangerous near-Earth trajectories, but their flybys of our planet in January and March went without incident, just as NASA had predicted.
"Again, there is no existing evidence that an asteroid or any other celestial object is on a trajectory that will impact Earth," Chodas said. "In fact, not a single one of the known objects has any credible chance of hitting our planet over the next century."
But before you head to the closest cave, it's helpful to know that NASA, the group that tracks such objects, is shooting down the rumor.
"There is no scientific basis - not one shred of evidence - that an asteroid or any other celestial object will impact Earth on those dates," said Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
In fact, NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations Program says there have been no asteroids or comets observed that would impact Earth anytime in the foreseeable future. All known Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (or PHA in NASA-speak) have less than a 0.01 percent chance of impacting Earth in the next 100 years, they add.
Chodas explains: "If there were any object large enough to do that type of destruction in September, we would have seen something of it by now."
READ MORE: When is the Supermoon? lunar eclipse, blood moon coming Sunday (September 27 2015)
The exact origin of the asteroid rumors is unknown, though many point to a 2010 letter by self-proclaimed prophet Rev. Efrain Rodriguez who told NASA he had received a revelation about an asteroid headed to Puerto Rico. The rumor then became that the U.S. government was building hidden bunkers to protect "the elite" and keeping information away from the public to avoid mass hysteria.
NASA pointed out that it's no stranger to such end-of-the-world rumors. In 2011, there were rumors comet Elenin would hit the earth, followed by claims the end of the Mayan calendar on Dec. 21, 2012 signaled a giant asteroid was headed this way. Earlier this year, asteroids 2004 BL86 and 2014 YB35 were said to be on dangerous near-Earth trajectories, but their flybys of our planet in January and March went without incident, just as NASA had predicted.
"Again, there is no existing evidence that an asteroid or any other celestial object is on a trajectory that will impact Earth," Chodas said. "In fact, not a single one of the known objects has any credible chance of hitting our planet over the next century."
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