November 2, 2020?
Foto: Science Photo Library – ANDRZEJ / Getty Images
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Increasingly, when I consider the fact that we are only two months away and we are walking away from one of (if not the) most important and precarious elections in the nation’s history, I must pause what I am doing to accommodate to heavy breathing; shrill little screams; and sit in the shower. The stakes are high and the memories of Election Night 2016 are hauntingly fresh. Hit me, I whisper to the Universe right now. Do what you have to do, but don’t make me see the results again.
Please know that an asteroid hurtling toward Earth the day before the 2020 election is not what I had in mind, and I’m sorry. I was thinking of something more like a conveniently timed prolonged sleep, or get stuck in the fish tube and thrown into 2021 / oblivion. But according to CNN, a possible impact event is what we are getting instead. The chances of a collision are slim, but still.
Asteroid 2018VP1 is about 6.5 feet wide and was discovered in 2018. According to the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, it will approach Earth on November 2. NASA has put the probability of an attack at about 0.41 percent, and does not believe that 2018VP1 will bring the end of days. However, we must consider the evidence.
A brief description of some bad omens we’ve seen in recent months: a plague of killer insects; real, infectious pests (classified); apocalyptic weather events such as monster hail, flash flooding, and “firenados“; a black river of molten mud touring Arizona; rodents coming out of the sewers to claim our cities; he moon actively distancing of us, for reasons that I think are obvious. Granted, the planet I already got a pass on a much bigger space rock which approached in April, but an asteroid ending in 2020? At this point, it feels a bit on the nose.