April 29, 2020

Explanation: Newly discovered Comet SWAN has already developed an impressive tail. The comet came in from the outer Solar System and has just passed inside the orbit of the Earth. Officially designated C/2020 F8 (SWAN), this outgassing interplanetary iceberg will pass its closest to the Earth on May 13, and closest to the Sun on May 27. The comet was first noticed in late March by an astronomy enthusiast looking through images taken by ESA's and NASA's Sun-orbiting SOHO spacecraft, and is named for this spacecraft's Solar Wind Anisotropies (SWAN) camera. The featured image, taken from the dark skies in Namibia in mid-April, captured Comet SWAN's green-glowing coma and unexpectedly long, detailed, and blue ion-tail. Although the brightness of comets are notoriously hard to predict, some models have Comet SWAN becoming bright enough to see with the unaided eye during June.

Claim: NASA warns about an asteroid hitting Earth on April 29, 2020

Rating: False

What is the rumour about?

• The rumour is about an apparent warning by NASA that talks about an asteroid hitting the Earth on April 29, 2020.
• There are many versions of the viral message that also state that a huge section of humans will be wiped out from around the globe. 
• Some messages also state that the Earth will be partially hit and that will put everyone’s life in danger.

Who started the rumour?

• Many Facebook users started sharing a video by Headlines India and captioned it saying that the world is going to end on April 29. Here is the screenshot of one such post.
• Many WhatsApp forwards were also seen mentioning the same in different languages. 
• Few online portals had also misinterpreted the official NASA news leading to a state of panic amongst people reading this message. 

Image courtesy: Facebook forwards

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Image courtesy: WhatsApp forwards (In Odia language)

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Republic World did a Fact Check on "NASA asteroid to hit on April 29" rumour

• Republic World did a fact check on the same and the rumour results appear to be false and misleading!
• According to NASA, the asteroid is referred to as "potentially hazardous" only because it fulfils specific criteria in the NASA classification scheme.
• If an asteroid orbit intersects Earth’s orbit at less than 7.5 million km, then it is considered as "potentially hazardous". 
• NASA has claimed that the asteroid, which is officially called as 52768 (1998 OR2), will pass closely near to Earth on April 29, 2020. The distance between Earth and the asteroid is estimated to be approximately 4 million miles, i.e 6.4 million km.
• NASA has clarified all the doubts by saying that the asteroid is not headed towards Earth and neither it would collide with the planet. It would rather pass by Earth. 

• NASA is said to have discovered the asteroid in 1998 and since then it has been observing its movement.
• NASA has clearly stated that every data about the asteroid passing near to Earth is available openly to the public on its website named Centre for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).
• The asteroid 52768 (1998 OR2) is also not found to be in NASA’s Sentry Impact Risk page as well which talks about the potential future events that could impact Earth.

Image courtesy: CNEOS website (Sentry: Earth Impact Monitoring)

• Astrophysicist Gianluca Masi of the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy mentioned that the 1.8 to 4.1km large asteroid will come as near as 6.3 million km to Earth on April 29. It will not hit Earth but become bright enough that the normal optical equipment can be used to view it properly.
• NASA clearly stated that the asteroid won’t come any near than 6.3 million km so one need not worry about any future collision. The asteroid will be 16 times far than the moon is.

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Google Trends analysis on NASA asteroid rumour

The NASA asteroid rumour is observed to be most searched on March 25, 2020. 

Image courtesy: Google Trends

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We've now got a good visual on the big space rock that's going to fly by Earth next week.

On Saturday (April 18), the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico captured a radar image of the asteroid 1998 OR2, which will zoom within 3.9 million miles (6.3 million kilometers) of our planet on April 29. 

For perspective: The moon orbits Earth at an average distance of about 239,000 miles (385,000 km). So we have nothing to fear from asteroid 1998 OR2's Earth flyby on April 29, scientists stress.

Related: Potentially dangerous asteroids (images)

Arecibo team members have been wearing masks in the workplace to help minimize the spread of the novel coronavirus, and they apparently see a bit of themselves in the approaching space rock.

"#TeamRadar and the @NAICobservatory staff are taking the proper safety measures as we continue observations. This week we have been observing near-Earth asteroid 1998 OR2, which looks like it's wearing a mask! It's at least 1.5 km across and is passing 16 lunar distances away!" team members tweeted on Saturday via the @AreciboRadar account. (@AreciboRadar is not an official Arecibo account. But @NAICobservatory is, and it retweeted the April 18 post.)

#TeamRadar and the @NAICobservatory staff are taking the proper safety measures as we continue observations. This week we have been observing near-Earth asteroid 1998 OR2, which looks like it's wearing a mask! It's at least 1.5 km across and is passing 16 lunar distances away! pic.twitter.com/X2mQJCT2QgApril 18, 2020

The Arecibo researchers aren't the only ones keeping an eye on 1998 OR2. For example, Italian astrophysicist Gianluca Masi, who runs the online Virtual Telescope Project, has been tracking the asteroid as well.

And Masi will continue to do so. On April 28, in fact, he will host a live webcast about 1998 OR2 that will feature telescope views of the object. 

Astronomers estimate that 1998 OR2 is between 1.1 and 2.5 miles (1.8 to 4.1 kilometers) wide — big enough that an impact could threaten human civilization. But, to repeat, there is nothing to fear here; the asteroid will miss us by a large margin on April 29. 

Indeed, you should quell any general death-from-above fears that may be running rampant in your head. NASA has found and tracked the vast majority of giant near-Earth asteroids, and none of them pose a threat to Earth for the foreseeable future.

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated byKarl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter@Spacedotcom orFacebook. 

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