Asteroid 1950 DA: Impact in 2880 Very Unlikely.
The clickbait article Phil discusses here was well designed bullshit.
What is it about crappy reporting and asteroids?
The culprit this time is the UK’s Telegraph. In its search to become ever more Daily Mailian, it ran an article about an asteroid called 1950 DA with this headline:
Huge asteroid set to wipe out life on Earth - in 2880
Along with this subtle piece of artwork:
I don’t get it.
Drawing by Alamy / Telegraph
Yeah. The only problem with this: It’s very, very unlikely the asteroid will whack us in 2880, so at best that headline is hugely misleading. And this ain’t “at best”. The real situation will take a moment to explain, but as usual, really cool science is involved.