The year 2020 continues to find new ways to produce theatrical-like twists and turns. But instead of relying on the comfort of fiction, strangeness is occurring in real life.
On Sunday, Oct. 18, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson added more drama to an already weird year by posting an image on social media of an asteroid approaching Earth. Tyson told his 14.3 million Twitter followers that an asteroid could hit Earth one day before the contentious 2020 election.
“Asteroid 2018VP1, a refrigerator-sized space-rock, is hurtling towards us at more than 40,000 km/hr,” he tweeted. “It may buzz-cut Earth on Nov. 2, the day before the Presidential Election.”
Tyson did provide his followers with a bit of assurance, however, adding: “It’s not big enough to cause harm. So if the World ends in 2020, it won’t be the fault of the Universe.”
Although Tyson provided his followers with a heads-up, the asteroid has a less than 1 percent chance of actually hitting the Earth, according to NASA, which discovered the asteroid hurtling toward the planet in 2018.
Nope.
Actually, we do have plans, but none of them are funded.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 18, 2020
…not the results of Presidential Elections.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 18, 2020
