Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been tracking the asteroid JF1 for the last decade which is predicted to fly nearby Earth on May 6, 2022.
Scientists confirm that there is 0.026% probability of a direct impact with JF1 on 6 May, 2022.
Experts believe that JF1 measures around 130 meters in diameter and it’s about the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.
Researchers and spacecraft engineers from across Europe and the US are working on a mission to ‘deflect’ a space rock and ‘prove the technique as a viable method of planetary defence’.
This mission is called the Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment (AIDA) and will attempt to redirect the smaller part of a pre-selected double asteroid called Didymos.
A news was viral that the earth will be destroyed on April 29, 2020. It was said to be the end of the world. A large asteroid was poised to fly by Earth at that time. Asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2 made a close approach to Earth on April 29, 2020. However, nothing such happened. It was a hoax!
There's another "potentially hazardous" asteroid 99942 Apophis which will make a reasonably close flyby within 31,000 kilometres of Earth on 13 April 2029. Initial observations in December 2004 indicated a probability of up to 2.7% that it would hit Earth on April 13, 2029.
But scientists are confident that it won't hit Earth. Instead, it's a once-in-a-lifetime chance for scientists to truly understand asteroids near Earth.