A video on Youtube claims a forecast of near-Earth objects (NEOs) shows one of these may hit Earth in November.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory website shows the near-Earth objects and their forecasted distance from Earth as they pass by.
Asteroid forecast for November 2, 2020 from Jet Propulsion Laboratory
On November 2, 2020 an object labeled “2018 VP1″ is currently projected to come very close to Earth. The video is a little off on its math. Even so, Mike Murray of the Delta College Planetarium in Bay City, says don’t worry.
First, here’s how the easy math works. The minimum distance from Earth is forecast to be 0.02 times the distance between Earth and the moon. The distance to the moon is nearly 239,000 miles. So 0.02 times that distance is 4,780 miles. The video says you might think at this distance the asteroid would miss Earth. The narrator correctly points out that this object’s distance from Earth is measured to the center of the earth. The diameter of Earth is about 7,900 miles. So half the distance of the earth’s diameter is 3,950 miles. Even if the object came within 4,780 miles of the center of the earth, it would still miss us.
But here’s the real scoop from an expert - astronomer Mike Murray. He says first look at the confidence level. The confidence level is ranked at 7 on a scale from 0 to 9. A reading of 0 is very confident and a reading of 9 is very uncertain. So the forecast of the path of this asteroid is still very uncertain.
Murray says even if the asteroid was coming straight at Earth, he still wouldn’t panic - for several good reasons. First, the asteroid is very small at only 6 feet across. This asteroid would have to be 20 times larger to do major damage to one city. That’s if the asteroid even held together in one piece and hit the earth. Murray says most asteroids explode entering Earth’s atmosphere, or break up into many tiny pieces.
So, at the moment, you don’t have to start preparing for a catastrophe.
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July 21, 2020 at 04:51AM
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Video claims asteroid impact coming in November, but experts weigh in - MLive.com
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