WASHINGTON: An internet rumour that a large space rock is going to slam into Earth next month has gained enough traction to prompt NASA to put out a statement denying that the world is about to end.
As the apocalypse story has it, the asteroid impact would occur between September 15 and September 28 near Puerto Rico.
In the NASA release, Paul Chodas, the manager of the Near-Earth Object office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said, “There is no scientific basis — not one shred of evidence — that an asteroid or any other celestial object will impact Earth on those dates.”
The danger of a collision with any of the known asteroids over the next century is less than one in 10,000, the space agency said.
This is not the first time a story of impending doom from outer space has circulated on the internet, but this one persisted long enough to garner NASA attention.
“We’ve still been getting calls and getting emails, and September is coming up,” laboratory spokesman D.C. Agle said. “Some of these things just have a life of their own, so it seemed like a good idea to put out a release.”
Tesla driverless system to use updated radar technology
WASHINGTON: Electric carmaker Tesla announced Sunday it was upgrading its Autopilot software to use more advanced radar technology. In a...
