“More interesting than threatening…”: Scientists Downplay ‘Space Object’. “Scientists who announced last week that a

mysterious space object had a 1-in-500 chance of striking the

Earth in 30 years have retracted their prediction, saying it poses

little threat.

The object, which is either a small asteroid or piece of space

junk, has virtually no chance of hitting the planet in 2030.

However, scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena

said there’s a 1-in-1,000 chance it could hit Earth in 2071.”