An asteroid is not going to destruct Earth in September .

There . felicitous ?

Okay , okay , let ’s go into a bit more particular . Recently on the Internet , several stories have been circulating that , between   September 15 and 28 this class , an asteroid   or comet four kilometers ( 2.5 miles ) astray will hit Puerto Rico , destroying much of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the U.S. and Mexico , and also Central and South America . Sounds shivery , ripe ?

Thetheoryseems to have uprise from   Reverend Efrain Rodriguez , who “ institutionalise a letter ” to NASA in 2010 warning of an asteroid impingement in 2015 . mostly ignored at the time , severalblogsandvideoshave now picked up on the claim and reported it as fact .

The problem ? No such asteroid or comet exists . We know this thanks to NASA’sNear - Earth Object(NEO )   role at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) in California . This is able to get across allPotentially risky Asteroids(PHAs ) of a reasonable sizing . We fuck of many other PHAs , some that will come close to Earth ( but not impact ) in the next 100 yr , but there is simply no significant aim that will hit our major planet any clock time presently , especially not next month .

The story has since gone viral , so much so that NASA has cut a rarestatementconfirming that , no , Armageddon is not around the recession , something the authority is unremarkably loathe to do . " There is no scientific basis –   not one shred of grounds –   that an asteroid or any other heavenly aim will bear on Earth on those date , " articulate Paul Chodas , manager of NASA ’s NEO post , in the statement . " If there were any object large enough to do that type of destruction in September , we would have pick up something of it by now . ”

The threat   of asteroids and comet to Earth , though , is actually very real . Many scientist have beenclamoringfor a greater Earth Defense Department and signal detection system , to ensure we can find and destroy any potentially world - ending asteroids in future . Indeed ,   some small rocks , like theChelyabinsk meteorin February 2013 , do deal to skid under the radar . But something four kilometers wide is plainly too braggy not to be see , and there ’s nothing in the quick future that poses a terror . NASA grade the chance of a sizeable asteroid hitting Earth in the next 100 class at 0.01 % .

So , take off your tin foil lid and step out of your asteroid - proof bunker . Everything is going to be alright . Unless … Oh my ! What ’s that ? It ’s coming flop this wa-