Amid the usual cliche New Year's resolutions and dry January goals, a story about a 'lost' asteroid has been doing the rounds.
And it's not just any asteroid – this one's supposedly on a collision course with Earth. Since it's SAD season, you might be ready to welcome it - but don’t start preparing for an Armageddon-style scenario just yet.
First spotted back in 2007, this 54 million ton space rock named 2007 FT3 briefly made an appearance before vanishing into the cosmic abyss.
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But reports have recently started circling, suggesting there was a one in 11.5 million chance it might make a not-so-friendly rendezvous with Earth. The date? A rather specific October 5, 2024.
But before you mark your calendar for the end of the world, let's add a bit of perspective. In fact, NASA doesn't seem particularly panicked - and we tend to take our cue on all things space from them.
A spokesman for NASA told the Standard: “There are no known asteroid impact threats to Earth at any time in the next century. NASA and its partners diligently watch the skies to find, track, and categorize asteroids and near-Earth objects (NEOs), including those that may come close to Earth.
"An important note here is planetary scientists define asteroid approaches that come within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit as close approaches. The larger an asteroid is, the easier it is for our planetary defence experts to find, meaning that their orbits around the sun are usually very well-known and understood for years or even decades.”
Still, it’s always fun to indulge in a bit of 'what if', isn’t it? If this asteroid did hit Earth, it could pack a punch with the force of 2.6 billion tons of TNT. That's a big impact, but still nowhere near the force that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. According to research, that asteroid is predicted to have been about six miles wide, weighing close to one trillion tons and collided with Earth at a speed of around 45,000mph.
As for the 2007 FT3 asteroid, it’s one of over 1.3 million asteroids we know about floating around in space.
These rocky remnants are said to be the scraps from the early formation of our solar system, about 4.6 billion years ago. And while 2007 FT3 might sound ominous, it's actually pretty mundane compared to some of its peers. Take, for example, the asteroid Psyche, named after the Greek goddess of the soul. This unique metal-rich asteroid was discovered way back in 1852 and is one of the most intriguing objects in the main asteroid belt.
While the thought of a mystery asteroid potentially hitting Earth can sound pretty shocking, the reality is far less dramatic. For now, at least, it seems we're safe from any space rock-induced apocalypses.