ShortList is supported by you, our amazing readers. When you click through the links on our site and make a purchase we may earn a commission. Learn more

NASA Says Blood Moon And Asteroids (Probably) Won't Bring About The Apocalypse This Month

NASA Says Blood Moon And Asteroids (Probably) Won't Bring About The Apocalypse This Month

NASA Says Blood Moon And Asteroids (Probably) Won't Bring About The Apocalypse This Month
08 September 2015

Worried a massive asteroid apocalypse heralded by the ‘Blood Moon’ and hurtling its way towards us will wipe us all out at the end of the month? You’re not alone.

With a series of mysterious fireballs filmed in the skies recently – not to mention a freak lightning strike which killed 22 people in India yesterday – many conspiracy theorists believe it’s all linked to an appearance of the Blood Moon on 28 September, which would bring about the end of days.

Well you can stop praying to Aerosmith and Bruce Willis now - NASA has just ruled any imminent asteroid attack out.

Yes, so strong was the doom chatter that bods at America’s National Space Agency have been forced to stop doing important work for an hour or two in order to clear up this matter once and for all: We’re going to be OK, guys.

Speaking of the findings (or lack of) on its automated collision monitoring system Sentry, a spokesperson said: "NASA knows of no asteroid or comet currently on a collision course with Earth, so the probability of a major collision is quite small.”

“In fact, as best as we can tell, no large object is likely to strike the Earth any time in the next several hundred years,” he added.

A blood moon, or rather a tetrad to give it its less Hollywood name, is a lunar effect caused the reflection of sunlight on the Earth's atmosphere. Closer to Mars in colour, the moon appears to acquire a copper and even fuzzy red colour dependent on where the sun is.

The four consecutive lunar eclipses, which began in April 2014 with six full moons and which of course will see another tetrad at the end of the month, have been dubbed by some Christian leaders as the Blood Moon Prophesy, interpreted from the Book Of Joel which says: "The sun will turn into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes."

But according to the book of the world's chief space agency, this won't be for a while yet.

So if you’re reading this in a nuclear bunker with excellent broadband connection, you can come out now.

[Via: Mirror]

[Images: NASA, Allstar]