Asteroid heading towards Earth has 0.41% chance of hitting the planet, NASA data shows

According to data from NASA, an asteroid that is expected to come closer to Earth later this year has a 0.41% chance of hitting the planet.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) said the celestial object, known as 2018VP1, is expected to pass near Earth a day before the US presidential election in November 2.

The space agency said there were three potential impacts but, “based on 21 observations spanning 12,968 days,” they didn’t think a direct impact was likely.

2018VP1, which was first identified at Palomar Observatory, Calif., In 2018, is not considered a “potentially dangerous object” due to its small size – with a diameter of 0.002 km (about 6 , 5 feet), according to NASA data.

Potentially dangerous objects – usually asteroids or comets – are those whose orbit brings them closer to Earth and which are large enough to cause significant regional damage if they ever hit the planet.

Earlier this week, an asteroid flew over the southern Indian Ocean just 1,830 miles away – the closest such an object has ever flown over Earth.

The object, known as asteroid 2020 GC, was spotted by the Zwicky Transient Facility, a robotic camera that scans the sky, and is believed to be about the size of a large car.

Its small size meant that asteroid 2020 GC did not pose a great threat to Earth, as it would likely have shattered into the planet’s atmosphere if it was on track for a direct impact.

“It’s really cool to see a small asteroid approaching so close, because we can see Earth’s gravity bend its course dramatically,” Paul Chodas, director of CNEOS, said of the discovery.

“Our calculations show that this asteroid was rotated about 45 degrees when it rolled over near our planet.”