NASA struck down apocalyptic theories that a giant asteroid will hit Earth in September, saying there is “not one shred of evidence” the rumors are true. In 2011, the source of the hysteria centered on the so-called “doomsday” comet, which never posed a threat to Earth- it broke up into a small debris stream in space.

Previous reports suggested that in mid to late September, it is possible that a huge asteroid will hit the planet around the Puerto Rico area, causing widespread destruction to the Gulf and Atlantic coasts of Mexico and the United States, as well as Central and South America.

Paul Chodas, manager of NASA’s Near-Earth Object office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said that there is not scientific base for these claims and that there is no evidence that an asteroid or any other celestial object will impact Earth on those dates.

Despite these statistics, including the extremely low 1 in 700,000 percent chance of dying from an asteroid collision, the nature of the internet to quickly disseminate information of all types – regardless of authenticity – has once again led to a rampant proliferation of disinformation. “01 % probability of impacting Earth within the subsequent 100 years”, NASA stated.

It is not the first time that such “baseless allegations” have spread on the Internet. Chodas and his team are involved with the global collaboration of astronomers and scientists who keep a close watch on the sky using telescopes scouring the space for asteroids that could potentially harm our planet. In July, NASA released a wonderful video of a “Space Peanut” that whisked just 4.5 million miles from Earth – about 19 times the distance from the Earth to the moon.

Then came claims that a large asteroid would end the world’s existence on December 21, 2012, the end of the Mayan calendar. “In fact, not a single one of the known objects has any credible chance of hitting our planet over the next century”.