An asteroid ‘2018VP1’ or ‘Election Day Asteroid’ would come very close to Earth on 3 November 2020.
Asteroid 2018VP1 has a diameter of 2 metres.
The asteroid has a two-year orbital period and it would be as close as 4,700 miles in 2020.
It would likely burn up into an impressive fireball after entering the Earth’s atmosphere before reaching the ground.
As per NASA, there is a 0.41%, or 1 in 240 chance that 2018VP1 would impact the Earth.
Scientists have suggested ways like- to blow up the asteroid before it reaches Earth, or deflecting it off its Earth-bound course by hitting it with a spacecraft.
The most drastic measure undertaken so far is the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA), which includes NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission and the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hera.
Double Asteroid Redirection Test:
In 2018, NASA announced it had started the construction of DART, scheduled to launch in 2021.
Aim: To slam into the smaller asteroid of Didymos binary system at around 6 km per second in 2022.
Hera:
Hera scheduled to launch in 2024, will arrive at the Didymos system in 2027.
Aim: To measure the impact crater produced by the DART collision and study the change in the asteroid’s orbital trajectory.
The mission’s target is Didymos, a binary near-Earth asteroid that could pose the most likely significant threat to Earth.
