© Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
The Palomar Observatory on Palomar Mountain, California
Well, 2020 keeps getting better.
Amid a pandemic, civil unrest and a divided US election season, we now have an asteroid zooming in on us.
On the day before the presidential vote, no less.
Yep. The celestial object known as 2018VP1 is projected to come close to Earth on November 2, according to the Center for Near Earth Objects Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The diameter is 0.002 km, or about 6.5 feet, according to NASA data. It was first identified at Palomar Observatory in California in 2018.
NASA says there are three potential impacts, but “based on 21 observations spanning 12,968 days,” the agency probably determined the asteroid – phew! will have no profound effect, let alone bring Armageddon.
The chance that it will hit us is just 0.41%, data show.
CNN has reached out to NASA for additional or updated information, but has not heard back.
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