Planet earth was hit by a massive asteroid about 66 million years ago, which resulted in the extinction of dinosaurs. It has been thousands of years since such devastating events have occurred on the blue planet, and the lack of such catastrophic events has helped humans evolve. 

It is still possible for asteroid impacts to occur in the future, according to several space scientists. NASA and ESA monitor near-earth objects and their trajectory in order to prevent a collision that would challenge humanity's existence.

It was speculated that one of these rogue space rocks, 2021 QM1, would strike the Earth on April 02, 2052, after being detected in August 2021. 

Is 2021 QM a risk to the existence of planet earth

This asteroid was initially classified as a dangerous space rock that could crash into the earth.

This was one of the first observations of the asteroid and this information has given us valuable information about how it will behave in the future.

We were able to see its future paths around the Sun, and in 2052 it could get dangerously close to Earth. The more observations we have, the higher the risk becomes,' said Richard Moss, ESA's Head of Planetary Defence in a press release. 

ESA experts, however, have now removed this asteroid from the list of risk asteroids after a series of scientific observations and calculations.

The earth might be affected by only 1,377 asteroids in the future due to the removal of 2021 QM from the list. 

Asteroid hits are not confined to the past

According to Dr. Iain McDonald, a top space expert, asteroid impacts aren't confined to the past and may still occur in the future.

Neil deGrasse Tyson, another popular American physicist, also holds similar views, and once said that it is most likely that a deadly asteroid hit will cause the extinction of humanity.