♠ Posted by Unknown in asteroids at 8:00 PM
The asteroid called 2012 TT5 is due to pass September 24 at 5.1million miles away
Wild predictions being made online claim a space rock up to 2.5miles wide will strike Puerto Rico.
Dates range from September 21 to the end, but most are homing in on between September 23 or 24 due to a range of Bible codes, so-called prophecies, and alleged other predictions.
However, the Blood Moon Prophecy, says the end is nigh on September 28 as that coincides with the last of four 'blood moons' (total eclipses followed with six full moons in between) over the past 18 months.
self-proclaimed prophet Rev Efraid Rodriguez, who says he wrote to Nasa warning of the strike after receiving a message from God.
He claims he saw a vision of it "entering the airspace of the town of Arecibo in Puerto Rico, striking the sea between the island of Mona and Mayagüez and triggering a magnitude 12 earthquake.
The latest online doomsday prophecies have been read by so many people that NASA was forced to issue a statement, that it reiterated this week, saying the chances of an impact around that time or within the next few hundred years were next to zero.
Our investigation can exclusively reveal there are SIX so-called "close approaches" of "near Earth" asteroids due to pass within a cosmic fraction of the planet within the doommongers' seven-day predicted timescale.
Scientists predict it would take an impact from an asteroid of 1km (0.6miles) in length and upwards to actually kill off most life on the planet.
But something as small as 50 metres could destroy all of London out to the M25 boundary, and a space rock of 100metres long or more could devastate a continent, causing mass destruction and tsunamis.
How big are these six?
Of the six due to pass, those on September 23, 27 and 28, are estimated as being up to 57, 39, and 31-metres-long respectively.
In June 1908 the Tunguska asteroid exploded in the atmosphere above Siberia and is the most recent major one in world history.
It saw a 50-metre lump of extraterrestrial rock rain down, flattening around 80million trees, sending a shock wave across Russia measuring five on the Richter scale.
We found the biggest rocks set to pass are on September 22 and 24.
On the 22 two asteroids are expected to whistle past - one of up to 190 metres long - the length of eight train carriages - and another cruise ship-sized space rock of about 280 metres long.
Two days later another whopping 270metre asteroid will pass us.
How far away are they?
NASA monitors massive asteroids that pass by several million miles from Earth and smaller ones at up to about 7m miles.
It seems far, but put into context the moon is 238,800 miles from us and our closes planet is Venus at 25m miles away, so the "near Earth asteroids" pass closer to the moon than other planets, and their orbits vary.
The furthest pass of the largest three is on September 22, when the 280-metre asteroid is expected to whistle past at a relatively safe 14.7m miles from us, while the 270metre one on September 24, is a much closer 5.1m miles.
In fact, this space rock is the closest of all six objects due to pass over these days.
How certain is Nasa about its path?
NASA gives each asteroid a "condition code" from zero to nine of how certain it is about the predicted orbital path it gives.
A zero means there is "good certainty" about it, while nine means it is highly uncertain, with numbers in between on a sliding scale.
Only one of the six scored a zero - fortunately the biggest 280 metres one passing on September 22.
All the others scored from five or higher, meaning Nasa has a mid-way certainty on their orbital path or quite high uncertainty in two cases which scored six and seven respectively.
The most uncertain pass is the 57-metre rock on September 23, which has a condition code of seven - but hopefully its estimated 18.5m mile flyby and relative small size gives much room for manoeuvre.
More concerning is the cruise-ship-sized rock, the closest, and second largest object, due for September 24, which scored six.
NASA has two categories within the near-Earth objects, including those which potentially pose a risk.
Rocks are considered a "potentially hazardous asteroid" (PHA) if they are within 4.6m miles of Earthand at least 100 metres across.
NASA says a rock of such size hitting us is "big enough to cause regional devastation to human settlements unprecedented in human history in the case of a land impact, or a major tsunami in the case of an ocean impact."
They added: "Such impact events occur on average around once per 10,000 years."
So the "cruise ship" - known as asteroid 2012 TT5 - is almost three times the size of the smallest PHA, but its 5.1million miles estimated pass puts it a cosmic cats whisper of 500,000 miles over the PAH zone.
With the level of uncertainty surrounding its orbit, it could theoretically come within the PAH boundary.
There is also the NASA admission that it only knows the whereabouts of two per cent of the estimated 800,000 plus asteroids circling close to us, so hypothetically, an object we have no knowledge of could be on course right now.
In late 2013, Russia was unfortunate again, when a 20-metre long meteor came from nowhere and unexpectedly exploded above Chelyabinsk in Russia, injuring 1,500 people and damaging around 7,000 buildings.
2012 TT5 is due to pass at 5.1million miles just outside the potentially hazardous zone, but Nasa ad
So should we be worried and does that mean modern-day Nostradamuses are wrong?
Nasa insists the doommongers are wrong, although a rock of 2012 TT5's size will certainly be tracked to ensure it does not deviate from the projected orbit.
Nasa, and many scientists, still say we need not be worried.
It said in a statement: "NASA knows of no asteroid or comet currently on a collision course with Earth, so the probability of a major collision is quite small."In fact, as best as we can tell, no large object is likely to strike the Earth any time in the next several hundred years.
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By Jon Austin,The Express
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