The "Asteroid 2018 VP1" will hurtle towards Earth in a few weeks - is there any danger now? According to Esa experts, the rock is coming unusually close - shortly before the US presidential elections.
- An asteroid is moving rapidly towards Earth .
- The European Space Agency Esa discovered it on November 3, 2018.
- The “Asteroid 2018 VP1” now comes unusually close to Earth exactly two years later.
USA - This is going to be close! Space researchers have been observing an asteroid since November 3, 2018 , which is moving at breakneck speed towards Earth. You are expecting the " Asteroid 2018 VP1 " almost exactly two years later on November 2, 2020 - the day before the 59th US presidential election *, which will decide whether Donald Trump * will continue to be President of the USA.
According to the European Space Agency, Esa , the rock is 191 centimeters wide, two meters long and weighs 15 kilograms. According to the experts , the asteroid will hit our blue planet with a probability of 1 in 240 . All earth inhabitants can now breathe a sigh of relief, the end of the world is not imminent. Nevertheless: The chunk of space comes closer to us than the moon .
Asteroid: There is permanent danger for the earth from smaller rocks
The Esa estimates the distance that the rock will keep to the globe at between 1.09 and 0.02 Lunar Distance - this corresponds to a distance between 418,560 and 7,680 kilometers. Very often, asteroids cross Earth's orbit . But only a few come as close as “ 2018 VP1 ” on November 2nd - the rest keep a “safe distance”.
"2018 VP1" is hardly as big as a small car and also significantly lighter. Still smaller are asteroids for Earth potentially dangerous. The Chelyabinsk meteorite exploded over the Russian city in 2013. Around 7,000 buildings were damaged and around 1,500 people were injured. However, experts estimated its size to be around 19 meters. Several asteroids have already touched Earth's orbit this year . On February 1st, “2020 CW” came up to 15,360 kilometers and “2020 JJ” even came close to 11,520.
The video shows “2020 QG”, which also flew over the Indian Ocean in record proximity. If this had hit the earth, the little heavenly body would have burned up immediately on August 16, 2020:
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