Neil deGrasse Tyson Shares An Apocalyptic Pre-Election Warning
Neil deGrasse Tyson made science cool for a whole generation of students. He began his career as an astrophysicist (casual, right?) but became an unlikely celebrity when he landed a gig hosting ScienceNOW on Nova. From there, he made a name for himself as a pop science educator as he continued to host and nabbed guest appearances on shows like the Big Bang Theory. Over the years, he's become an advocate for the arts and sciences and even found himself in the middle of a few public scandals.
Besides being a TV host, astrophysicist, and advocate for scientific funding and climate change precautions, Tyson is also unafraid to share his political beliefs. In 2017, he unleashed a series of tweets criticizing President Donald Trump's proposed 45-million-dollar budget cut to several government agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, per CNN. "The fastest way to Make America Weak Again: Cut science funds to our agencies that support it," Tyson tweeted. "The fastest way to thwart Earth's life-support systems for us all: Turn EPA into EDA — the Environmental Destruction Agency," he wrote.
That wouldn't be the last time Tyson shared his political beliefs on social media. Weeks before the 2020 presidential election, Tyson took to Instagram to make a rather ominous prediction about election day. Read on to find out why Tyson's post is freaking everyone out.
Neil deGrasse Tyson made a worrisome prediction
On Oct. 18, 2020, Neil deGrasse Tyson posted a photo of the earth with two asteroids hurtling towards it to his Instagram. If that's not enough to make you sweat, the first line of the caption certainly will: "Asteroid 2018VP1, a refrigerator-sized space-rock, is hurtling towards us at more than 25,000 mi/hr." That definitely doesn't sound good, but Tyson quickly reassured readers.
"It may buzz-cut Earth on November 2, the day before the Presidential Election. But it's not big enough to cause harm," the astrophysicist explained. "So if the World ends in 2020, it won't be the fault of the Universe." To sum it up, there's a small asteroid hurtling towards earth, but it won't be a problem. Tyson's post seems to subtly point out the other, non-asteroid-related risks of election night.
NASA later confirmed via their Asteroid Watch Twitter account that the asteroid was nothing to worry about. "[The asteroid] currently has a 0.41% chance of entering our planet's atmosphere, but if it did, it would disintegrate due to its extremely small size," they tweeted.