NASA has denied viral internet claims that an asteroid will strike Earth next month wreaking widespread devastation.
It was rumoured that the cosmic strike would hit near Puerto Rico, destroying parts of the US Atlantic and Gulf coasts and Mexico, as well as Central and South America, Sky News reported.
The predictions were first made by an online community of biblical theorists who claimed the space rock will hit sometime between 15 and 28 September.
It was also rumoured that the US authorities were secretly making emergency plans for the impending catastrophe, Sky News reported.
Nasa has now published a lengthy statement on its website refuting the rumours as untrue.
"There is no scientific basis - not one shred of evidence - that an asteroid or any other celestial object will impact Earth on those dates," said Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, Sky News reported.
"If there were any object large enough to do that type of destruction in September, we would have seen something of it by now," he added.
He said such doomsday stories seem to circulate all too often.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/space/news/article.cfm?c_id=325&objectid=11500683
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