A refrigerator-sized asteroid could hit Earth a day before the US presidential election , which is scheduled for November 3. American astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson announced this on his Instagram page.
“Asteroid 2018VP1, a refrigerator-sized asteroid in space, is speeding towards us at over 25,000 miles per hour,” he wrote.
At the same time, the scientist assured that there would be no particular harm from such a collision, since the asteroid is relatively small in size. According to Tyson, if “the end of the world comes in 2020, it is not the fault of the universe.”
According to NASA, the probability that an asteroid will enter the Earth’s atmosphere is 0.41 percent. It is expected to flyby at 384 thousand kilometers.
Asteroid 2018 VP1 was discovered on November 3, 2018. It belongs to the “Apollo” group – these are asteroids whose paths cross the earth’s orbit.
No protection from dangerous asteroids
Humanity does not have the technical ability to prevent a large asteroid from falling to Earth. Currently, there are no such opportunities. The only means is to notify the population. However, we cannot predict where on Earth the asteroid will hit. The orbit and angles of entry into the atmosphere are determined with an error. It turns out that one asteroid can have a whole track from possible points of impact, which can stretch for half of the Earth.
The origin of life when an asteroid falls
Japanese scientists studying the origin of life on Earth simulated on an experimental setup the conditions that arise when an asteroid falls into the ocean. It turned out that with such an event complex organic compounds such as amino acids are formed in water.It turned out that the shock produces amino acids such as glycine and alanine, which serve as building blocks for proteins involved in many biological reactions.In the early stages of development on Mars, as on Earth, falls of meteorites and asteroids were common, and the formation of amino acids induced by impacts could well be the first step towards the origin of life, scientists say.
US presidential election
The US presidential election will be held on November 3. The current leader of the country, Donald Trump, is running for a second Republican term. His main rival is Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
According to the data on the number of views in the past debate, Biden’s speech was watched by 600 thousand more people than Trump.
Most states vote in whole or in part by mail. Earlier, Trump called Biden “the worst presidential candidate in history” and jokingly promised to leave the United States if he loses the election.
