An asteroid is probably not going to hit Earth on election day – despite what people are saying

An asteroid is heading towards Earth ahead of election day – but is almost certain to skip actually paying a visit, let alone posing any danger.

Excitement has increased over the object known as 2018VP1 in recent days. The asteroid will pass by on 2 November, the day before the presidential election in the US.

That has led many to fear that the passage could be some kind of portent, or that it could be just one of a sign of major incidents that could happen that week.

But the object will almost certainly decline to visit our planet. If it did, it would barely register at all, disintegrating in the atmosphere before it got a chance to get close to Earth.

Recent interest in the asteroid has been piqued by a post from Neil deGrasse Tyson, who shared the news that the object would be coming past Earth.