A post is being shared widely on social media with a claim that NASA has confirmed that a huge rock will hit Earth’s surface on 07 October 2020. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: NASA has confirmed that a huge rock will hit Earth’s surface on 07 October 2020.
Fact: No such confirmation has been given by NASA. Also, NASA’s ‘Sentry: Earth Impact Monitoring’ list does not mention any such huge rock hitting the Earth on 07 October 2020. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When we searched about a huge rock hitting the Earth on 07 October 2020, many news articles regarding ‘2020 RK2’ object passing close to the Earth on 07 October 2020 were found. None of the articles mentioned about ‘2020 RK2’ hitting the Earth’s surface. Also, NASA has not mentioned anywhere that a huge rock will hit the Earth’s surface on 07 October 2020. NASA’s ‘Sentry: Earth Impact Monitoring’ list does not mention any such huge rock hitting the Earth on 07 October 2020. For the remaining period in 2020, there is only one asteroid in the list – ‘2018 VP1’. NASA has already clarified – ‘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’
Also, on its website, NASA has mentioned – ‘No known asteroid poses a significant risk of impact with Earth over the next 100 years. The highest risk of impact for a known asteroid is a 1 in 714 chance of impact by an asteroid designated 2009 FD in 2185, meaning that the possibility that it could impact then is less than 0.2 per cent.’
While the impact list does not mention about any huge object hitting the Earth on 07 October 2020, NASA’s ‘NEO Earth Close Approaches’ list mentions three objects. The closest one among them to approach Earth is ‘2020 RK2’, about which several news articles have mentioned. It will fly by around 38,26,808 km from the Earth on 07 October 2020.
Further details regarding ‘2020 RK2’ can be found here. The orbital movement of ‘2020 RK2’ and Earth can be seen below:
The ‘European Space Agency (ESA)’ has also mentioned in its October 2020 Newsletter that ‘no known object will come closer than the Moon during the month of October’. The details regarding ‘2020 RK2’ can be also found on the ESA’s website.
To sum it up, no huge rock or ‘2020 RK2’ will hit the Earth’s surface on 07 October 2020. The information on the NASA and ESA websites confirms it.
