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by Andrew Griffin
The Independent
'We would have seen something of it by now,' said Nasa’s head asteroid spotter
Conspiracy theorists and others keep saying that we are going to be killed by an asteroid, and Nasa has been forced to point out that it is very, very unlikely that it’s going to happen.
This week, news reports of “prophet” Efrain Rodriguez’s claim that an asteroid is about to hit Puerto Rico and destroy the Earth resurfaced, ahead of the expected apocalypse sometime between September 15 and 28. But Nasa has already denied that anything is headed for us any time in September.
“If there were any object large enough to do that type of destruction in September, we would have seen something of it by now,” said Paul Chodas — manager of Nasa’s Near-Earth Object Office, which is charged with spotting such asteroids — said in a statement.
The office has spotted no asteroids or comets that could cause such damage coming for us, it said. And there is a less than 0.01 per cent chance of any “Potentially Hazardous Asteroids” hitting us in the next 100 years.
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