….first of all, let me say this: April fools day is the most wretched day of the year. In the old days (pre 2016) ‘fake news’ was abundant on April fools day. Now fake news is just out there every day.
Anyway, be sure of this: Tomorrow you will hear someone famous died, a war started somewhere, and aliens landed. All of it will be very unfunny lame jokes on you. April Fool’s day. Awful.. just awful.
But what IS true is this: A comet will not hit earth..
A comet named 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresák is set to make its closest flyby to Earth since it was originally discovered in 1858.
A few days before Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresák reaches perihelion, the comet will be very near its closest point to Earth for a 6-day period between March 29 and April 3, according to Space.com.
The absolute closest it will come to the Earth will be smack in the middle of that date range — on April Fools’ Day — when it will zoom by approximately 13.2 million miles away. Pending atmospheric conditions, viewers in the Northern Hemisphere should be able to see it on Saturday night around 9 PM EST near the handle of the Big Dipper — however, since the comet is less than a mile in diameter, you’ll need either high-quality binoculars or a telescope to check it out.
There may be an article or two tomorrow that the comet will strike. But it won’t.
HOWEVER.. that said.. so often we are hit with stories of night skies lighting up from asteroids or comets that have gone undetected.. from meteors and space rocks flying through the atmosphere. So it’s not comforting, at least to me, to think that a comet is making a close flyby.
Space is vast and large.. we’re a pale blue dot.
….folks, it’s just a matter of time.
April fools or not. One day it won’t be a joke regulated to the final story on late local news after sports and weather..
