Luke 21:25,26 “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.
A large asteroid is projected to approach Earth on Christmas Eve, getting close enough that scientists will be able to study it but not close enough that it will have any effect on the planet.
According to a blog post on NASA’s website, the 2003 SD220 asteroid will be about 6.7 million miles away from Earth when it passes by later this month. That’s 28 times the distance between the Earth and the moon. NASA says it will be able to use radar to determine the object’s mass, as well as perform other scientific studies, but the asteroid isn’t expected to be any danger to Earth.
Over the summer, rumors swirled on the Internet saying that an asteroid was going to impact earth some time in September. In a statement at the time, NASA said every known comet and potentially hazardous asteroid has a less than .01 percent chance of hitting Earth before 2115.
“There is no existing evidence that an asteroid or any other celestial object is on a trajectory that will impact Earth,” Paul Chodas, who heads NASA’s Near-Earth Object office, said in a statement at the time. “In fact, not a single one of the known objects has any credible chance of hitting our planet over the next century.” Scientists discovered 2003 SD220 back in 2003.
The asteroid was originally thought to be .8 miles wide, but NASA says the latest observations indicate the asteroid is closer to half that size. While there are some published reports saying that 2003 SD220 will be close enough to trigger volcanoes or earthquakes, even without hitting Earth, though astronomy website EarthSky.org declared they are “misleading and incorrect.”
Writing for the website, Eddie Irizarry of the Astronomical Society of the Caribbean said there isn’t any scientific evidence suggesting asteroids can lead to seismic activity simply from a fly-by. That would be different if the asteroid hit Earth, he wrote, but “that clearly will not be the case.”
News agency UPI reported that another asteroid passed much closer to Earth on Halloween, coming within about 310,000 miles of the planet, and that didn’t lead to any adverse effects.
Still, NASA is savoring the opportunity to study the asteroid to learn more about its structure. It will only be close enough for radar detection five times in the next 12 years, according to the blog post. That includes a scheduled 2018 fly-by when it’ll be about 1.7 million miles away.
