Okay, maybe the title was a bit misleading (I did say could), but there is a 1 in 625 (or 0.0016%) chance that an asteroid will hit Earth in 2046. This asteroid dubbed 2023 DW (unfortunately there’s no fresh market hurtling towards us) is 165 ft. in diameter (which is slightly taller than France’s Arc de Triomphe) and would cause horrible damage if it hit Earth.
The asteroid is still 11 million miles away, and if it were to hit, it would be on Valentine’s Day in 2046, but that’s not likely for many reasons. First, I’ve already said there’s a minuscule chance that it hits us. Plus, NASA has DART.
DART stands for Double Asteroid Redirection Test, which basically just means they use blunt force to redirect asteroids. Last September they hit an asteroid with a spacecraft to alter its course, and, they’re already working on more effective techniques, so don’t worry, we won’t get wiped out like the dinosaurs.