Sam Amico
Nothing says “I love you” quite like an apocalyptic event.
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Actually, that’s probably not true — but according to NASA, the day to celebrate romance could be interrupted in the year 2046. Or completely ruined.
That is, if a giant asteroid collides with Earth. Right now, NASA said it is monitoring the possibility.
Granted, millions of asteroids are scattered about in the solar system, and the vast majority are rarely considered anything close to a threat. But that all changed a couple of weeks ago when NASA made a discovery.
NASA Asteroid Watch
The asteroid is known as 2023 DW and is considered the greatest risk of any asteroid. In fact, it’s been added to the very top of the European Space Agency’s very official asteroid Risk List.
Now, before we get too freaked out, 2023 DW still has a risk ranking of 1 — meaning it’s hardly a risk at all. But it is a risk, and they don’t often say that about asteroids. The rest on the Risk List, for the record, have a ranking of 0.
“Current calculations show the chance of collision is extremely unlikely with no cause for public attention or public concern,” the Torino Scale asteroid impact ranking wrote of 2023 DW.
Meanwhile, the European Space Agency estimates that the asteroid has about a 1 in 607 chance of connecting with Earth.
“Often when new objects are first discovered, it takes several weeks of data to reduce the uncertainties and adequately predict their orbits years into the future,” NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office tweeted. “Orbit analysts will continue to monitor asteroid 2023 DW and update predictions as more data comes in.”
Astronomer Piero Sicoli added that he too the odds of a collision between 2023 DW and Earth are small.
“Surely this possibility will soon be ruled out,” he tweeted. “However, as an exercise, I calculated where the asteroid might fall if this possibility occurred.”
From the look of his map, the asteroid would touch down/collide anywhere between the Indian Ocean and just off the east coast of the U.S.
If it does touch down, well, it’s safe to say more than just love will be in the air on Valentine’s Day 2046.
