No, asteroid 2018 LF16 is not likely to touch Earth – BGR

The tabloids have always taken a lot of liberty with the headlines, but some of the current coverage of the asteroid known as 2018 LF16 really takes things to the next level. The near-Earth rock has been the subject of many headlines echoing NASA's assessment that 62 "risk trajectories" could place it on a collision course with the Earth between 2023 and 2117. However, if it is based on hard data, less worrying image.

The asteroid is quite large, with an estimated diameter of more than 200 meters. If it actually hits our planet, it will be a bad day for the planet. The good news is that there is virtually no chance of such a thing happening.

The real trap of the current asteroid coverage is the 62 potential trajectories drawn by NASA that would place it on a trajectory that would impact the Earth. I mean, 62 looks like a whole lot when you have nothing to compare, but rest assured knowing the odds are definitely not in favor of the asteroid.

NASA models show that the real probabilities that rock affects the Earth are 1 in 30,000,000. million. In fact, the odds are so low that people following the asteroid threats have assigned 2018 LF16 a threat rating of 0/10. The "zero" rating is defined as "the probability of a collision is zero or so low that it is effectively zero". A score of 5/10 is where astronomers consider an object to be "threatening" and "certain collisions". start from 8/10.

Now that we have taken probabilities into account, let's talk about the rock itself. 2018 LF16 is huge compared to most of the space rocks that appear in our part of the country, and even though it would not necessarily be a "planet killer", it would certainly be a danger to anyone in the area . Its strength would be equivalent to the most destructive nuclear weapons created by humanity.

Again, this is so unlikely that it does not even bother to worry, but it's always interesting to know what's going on in our solar system.