When the people were engulfed in the fears of the outbreak of coronavirus, netizens were blown away with the claim of an asteroid going to hit Earth and will probably destroy the civilization.
A video clip with a logo of ‘Headlines India’ claiming about an asteroid as big as the Himalayas is going to hit the planet Earth surfaced online.
Though the claim turned out to be misleading, as per NASA, an asteroid, officially called 52768 (1998 OR2), is expected to fly past Earth on April 29, 2020, at a distance of approximately 4 million miles.
This viral claim with the same video has been posted by many Facebook users, which has created panic amongst the users. The given news first appeared on Daily Express with the headline Asteroid warning: NASA tracks a 4KM asteroid approach – Could end civilisation if it hits. People on social media started believing it. This piece of news has created quite a sensation and confusion among the readers.
However, NASA is constantly monitoring the trajectory speed, and distance of this particular asteroid 52768 (1998 OR2) along with others. NASA discovered this asteroid in 1998, and since then it is observing its every movement. Every data about this asteroid is available publicly on the website of the Centre for Near Earth Object Studies ( CNEOS).
As per India today’s fact check report, this asteroid 52768 (1998 OR2) is also not mentioned in the list of Sentry Impact Risk Page of NASA which monitors the potential future Earth impact events and with an estimated diameter of 1.8 km to 4.1 km, the asteroid will fly past Earth from an estimated distance of 3.9 million miles at an estimated speed of around 20000 miles per hour which means it will come no closer than about 16 times the distance between the Earth and Moon.
Image Source – bhaskar.com
