A rumor that an asteroid will strike the Earth has gone viral. According to sources, the space rock will hit near Puerto Rico between Sept. 15 and 28, destroying the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North, Central and South Americas.
NASA's Near-Earth Object program is responsible for keeping tabs on the numerous objects that fly in space around our big blue dot. So, what does Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. have to say about all the hype?
"There is no scientific basis - not one shred of evidence - that an asteroid or any other celestial object will impact Earth on those dates," he said, according to a statement from JPL. According to NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations Program (also known as "Spaceguard"), all known "Potentially Hazardous Asteroids" have less than a 0.01 percent chance of hitting the Earth in the next century.
"If there were any object large enough to do that type of destruction in September, we would have seen something of it by now," Chodas added.
What would - or could - we do if NASA does detect an impending impact? Check out HNGN's exclusive interview with John L. Remo, an astrophysicist that studies real-life "killer" asteroids and see what he had to say.
