Asteroid Apocalypse 2015: Three Future Asteroids Target Earth, NASA Says, After This Week’s Near Miss
The massive asteroid that internet rumors claimed would cause an apocalypse in September 2015 will indeed pass by Earth on Thursday, September 24. But though the asteroid will come close to the planet in terms of the cosmic scale, it will not impact the planet, and other than amateur astronomers watching through backyard telescopes, no one on the planet will even notice that it’s there, according to the United States space agency NASA.
As it turns out, the asteroid known as 2012 TT5 — a giant space rock as long as three American football fields — will zoom past our home planet at a distance of about 5 million miles, nearly 22 times as far away as the moon.
Asteroid 2012 TT5 will safely pass Earth tomorrow by about 5 million miles/8 million km or 21.5 LD (lunar distances). It poses no threat.
— Asteroid Watch (@AsteroidWatch) September 23, 2015
For much of 2015, conspiracy theories and wild rumors have spread like a virus online, all telling variations on the same frightening story — that sometime in September, a huge asteroid will impact Earth, causing unimaginable destruction and perhaps even wiping out all life on the planet.
NASA knows about the impending asteroid apocalypse — and is covering the whole thing up, according to the paranoid theories.
In reality, NASA says that it knows of no asteroid capable of slamming into the planet and causing significant damage any time in the coming century.
But what about after the coming century?
While the asteroid that appears to be at the root of the 2015 apocalypse rumors will pass safely past the planet Thursday and continue its aimless journey through space unimpeded, a report by London’s Daily Express newspaper has found that NASA is indeed tracking three separate asteroid that are indeed on a collision course with Earth.
And even though no one alive today will be around to worry about the future asteroid apocalypse, the great-grandchildren of generations alive today will be alive and could be forced to deal with stopping an asteroid-induced global catastrophe.
NASA constantly monitors space for what it refers to as PHAs, or “Potentially Hazardous Asteroids.” One such PHA, numbered 2009 FD and measuring more than 500 yards across, is headed for Earth and could strike sometime between the years 2185 and 2196.
The potentially killer asteroid has a one in 345 chance of striking Earth — an extremely high probability considering that most PHAs are given probabilities of less than one in several million of making impact.
Another huge asteroid, numbered 1999, has a probability of hitting Earth estimated at just one in 2,700 — and will have 78 different chances to strike between the years 2175 and 2199, according to the Express investigation.
Finally, NASA is monitoring asteroid 1950 DA, a mile-wide rock discovered 65 years ago and that is on target to possibly slam into Earth in the year 2880. But even that massive asteroid has just a 20,000-to-one chance of hitting Earth, meaning that not only does a 2015 asteroid apocalypse appear to be nothing to worry about, there isn’t much to concern humans of the far future, either.
[Image: Puchan / Shutterstock]
