The famed astrophysicist and cosmologist predicts that a refrigerator-sized space-rock will hit the Earth on November 2, one day before the election that will determine the next leader of the U.S.
- Oct 19, 2020
AceShowbiz - Neil deGrasse Tyson has warned people of Earth of a potential "Armageddon"-like phenomenon. The famed astrophysicist and cosmologist took to his social media pages to share his prediction of an asteroid strike that will make its impact on Earth on November 2, one day before the presidential election.
"Asteroid 2018VP1, a refrigerator-sized space-rock, is hurtling towards us at more than 40,000 km/hr," he posted on Sunday, October 18 both on Twitter and Instagram. "It may buzz-cut Earth on Nov 2, the day before the Presidential Election."
Noting that "it's not big enough to cause harm," he jokingly added, "So if the World ends in 2020, it won't be the fault of the Universe."
A Twitter user disagreed with Neil, saying, "Technically everything is the fault of the Universe, Neil." Making it clear that he didn't mean to blame it on the result of the presidential election, the planetary scientist replied, "...not the results of Presidential Elections."
Meanwhile, another person was not impressed with Neil's joke, seemingly thinking that Neil made the joke with the current political situation in the U.S. in mind. "Thought you were a physicist... the end of the world will indeed be caused by nature. Puny social constructs will have zero impact on the inevitable course of nature," the said user wrote.
A skeptical person enthused, "Kinda short notice, don't ya think??" while someone else expressed a slight worry that the asteroid strike may happen as commenting, "I'd say this is hilarious if it weren't actually a real possibility at the moment."
NASA had previously identified the asteroid rocketing toward Earth, but put its chances of actually striking at less than 1 percent. "Asteroid 2018VP1 is very small, approx. 6.5 feet, and poses no threat to Earth! It currently has a 0.41% chance of entering our planet's atmosphere, but if it did, it would disintegrate due to its extremely small size," the space agency said on Twitter back in August.
