NASA Ruled out Asteroid Collision with Earth in 2040

The Mayan Doomsday predictions about the world ending on 21 December 2012 had failed and additionally NASA ruled out the asteroid collision with Earth in 2040. NASA claimed that the fear of asteroid collision with Earth does not pose a threat to our planet any more.

NASA declared that doubt about orbit of this asteroid called 2011 AG5 initially enabled that there were less than 1 percent chances of it hitting the planet in February 2040. Initially the scientists had estimated that risk of 140m-diametre asteroid collision with Earth was just one in 500.

In case, this asteroid would have collided with Earth, there would have been a release of around 100 megatonnes of energy, which is a lot more than atom bombs used in World War II. Considering the statistics, it was found that a body as huge as this would have created an impact on Earth every 10000 years on an average.

The observations were made while making use of Gemini North telescope in Hawaii. The observations were very challenging for the team. The scientists were especially surprised about the fact that a telescope could recover faint asteroid in the sky.