WASHINGTON: The world can breath easy. A giant asteroid is not hurtling towards Earth about to wipe out much of the Americas, Nasa has felt compelled to explain following a swirl of online rumors.

Blogs and off-beat news sites have claimed a major asteroid will impact earth in mid-to-late September near Puerto Rico, causing major destruction throughout the region.

Take a look: Giant asteroid set to buzz Earth, poses no threat: Nasa

But that theory is entirely baseless, Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a post this week, trying to damp down the Doomsday predictions.

“There is no scientific basis — not one shred of evidence — that an asteroid or any other celestial object will impact Earth on those dates,” said the manager of the Near-Earth Object office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Paul Chodas.

The lab explained that all known hazardous asteroids have a less than .01 per cent chance of impacting Earth in the next 100 years.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2015

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