A post claiming that NASA has confirmed that a huge rock will hit the surface of the earth on October 7, 2020, is doing the rounds on social media.
The picture caption read, “NASA confirms huge rocks soaring near earth at unimaginable speed and will hit earth’s surface on 7th October 2020.!”
The Facebook post read, “**Huge Rock approaching Earth, confirmed by NASA**”

Other similar posts can be seen here, here, here and here.

FACT CHECK

NewsMobile fact-checked the above post and found it to be misleading.
With the help of keyword search, we first found an article on NDTV dated October 6, 2020, claiming that an asteroid is likely to cross the Earth’s orbit but it will be about 2,380,000 miles away from earth.  NASA’s asteroid monitoring centre stated that 2020 RK2 is the asteroid that will cross the Earth’s orbit.

Also, we found another news article in India Today dated October 6, 2020, claiming that asteroid 2020 RK2 is bigger than the size of a Boeing 747 airliner and will collide with the Earth’s orbit at a distance of 38,30,238 km away, on October 7, 2020, at around 10:42 pm.
Moreover, we searched for 2020 RK2 on NASA’s official website and found an orbit diagram of 2020 RK2 where it is clearly mentioned that the distance of 2020 RK2 from the earth is 0.026 au. Hence, the asteroid is just crossing the earth’s orbit and not hitting the earth’s surface.

Moreover, other details about 2020 RK 2 NASA could be seen here.
NASA had earlier tweeted on September 23, 2020, claiming that about 15 to 30 feet wide asteroid will be passing by the earth on September 24, 2020, at a distance of about 13,000 miles (22,000 km).

2020 SW, discovered by @Catalina_sky, is about 15 to 30 ft. wide and will pass by Earth Thurs., Sept. 24, at a distance of about 13,000 miles (22,000 km). Tiny asteroids like 2020 SW approach Earth this closely several times every year and aren’t a threat: https://t.co/xKWtzxLI7Q pic.twitter.com/FpkY77zibw

— NASA Asteroid Watch (@AsteroidWatch) September 23, 2020

Moreover as per NASA no known asteroid could pose a significant risk of impact with the Earth over the next century. The highest risk of impact for a known asteroid is a 1 in 714 chance of impact by an asteroid designated 2009 FD in 2185, meaning that the possibility that it could impact then is less than 0.2 per cent, as per Wikipedia.
Hence, with the help of the above information it is clear that the claim made in the social media post is false and the truth is that no asteroid is hitting the earth’s surface.

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