We hear all the time about different asteroids and things of the sort making approaches around our planet but honestly, some of them are quite mind-blowing. While most are pretty far some are much closer than most would ever imagine.
Right now there are researchers who monitor NEOs and asteroids that will be passing us by soon as best they can and well, these researchers have done this for years and years. They do this to keep us aware of the things going on in space and weigh out the odds of different space rocks hitting our planet which for most of them is not likely.
News of one NEO that will be passing our planet by in November of this year has been making headlines as of late and some are even making videos about it on Youtube. One thing we all need to know about this asteroid which is asteroid 2018 VP1 is that it will not be slamming into the Earth. It will pass us by without issue even though its approach will be a very close one compared to some we’ve experienced in the past.
Expert astronomer Mike Murray told MLive as follows on this topic for those who seem worried about this asteroid:
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 small asteroids of this size explode entering Earth’s atmosphere, or break up into many tiny pieces.
Yes, there are things we do not yet know about this asteroid and with any asteroid for the most part there are chances of them coming into contact with our planet but overall this one doesn’t seem to be any kind of threat even if that were to occur. I know, that this might be hard to wrap your head around, but we are hit by asteroids from time to time and other things of the sort.
CBS Detroit wrote as follows noting an instance where a larger space rock came in contact with our planet:
On February 15, 2013 the Chelyabinsk meteor entered the earth’s atmosphere over Russia over the southern Ural region. This asteroid was 11 times larger than “2018 VP1” at 66 feet across and was shared on social media everywhere as it appeared brighter than the sun and was visible up to 62 miles away. The Chelyabinsk meteor exploded about 97,000 feet in the air with the force of 400-500 kilotons of TNT, or 26-33 times the energy of the “Little Boy” atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. The atmosphere absorbed most of that blast and people were injured from broken windows from nearby buildings. It ended up exploding in an air burst into many pieces. Astronomer Mike Murray says “2018 VP1” would probably break apart or explode like the Chelyabinsk meteor and most that do impact the earth.
This specific asteroid that people seem so worried about is tiny compared to most and it would most likely if coming in contact with our planet at all end up landing in some kind of body of water anyway. This one like others would probably break apart into tiny pieces and that would be that. However, it could just pass us by entirely leaving nothing to wonder about.
As this NEO gets closer we will be able to learn more about it but for now, this is all we have. While it might sound scary, it’s nothing to be alarmed about. We will all be just fine.