Common doom myths, checked against NASA, NOAA and ESA.
Doom headlines spread faster than the data behind them. Each myth below is checked against a NASA, NOAA or ESA source, linked so you can read it yourself. Where the news is good, we say so. Where the problem isn't solved, we say that too.
Myth
Fact
It is healing. NOAA and NASA ranked the 2025 Antarctic ozone hole the fifth smallest since 1992, when the Montreal Protocol began to take effect, and the ozone layer remains on track to recover fully later this century.
It's slow: banned chemicals still leak from old products, so scientists expect the Antarctic hole to recover around the late 2060s.
Myth
Fact
Humanity has already moved one. NASA's DART spacecraft hit the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos in 2022 and shortened its orbit by 33 minutes and 15 seconds.
DART was a test on a small asteroid that posed no threat. Finding asteroids early gives time to act, which is why NASA is building NEO Surveyor.
Source: NASA, Asteroid's orbit, shape changed after DART impact
Myth
Fact
It won't. Apophis will safely pass close to Earth on April 13, 2029, and NASA is confident there is no risk of it impacting our planet for at least 100 years.
It really will pass close, about 20,000 miles away, which is why NASA's OSIRIS-APEX is going to study it.
Source: NASA, Asteroid Apophis
Myth
Fact
In early 2025 it briefly had a small chance of hitting Earth. More observations showed it poses no significant risk to Earth, and in 2026 NASA ruled out a Moon impact too.
Early impact odds often rise before they fall to zero. That is the tracking system working, not failing.
Source: NASA, observations eliminate chance of 2032 lunar impact
Myth
Fact
NOAA says it plainly: when a coral bleaches, it is not dead. If the stress is not severe, corals have been known to recover.
If the heat stress lasts too long, bleached coral does die. That's why restoration groups replant reefs.
Myth
Fact
NOAA's SOLAR-1 watches the Sun from about a million miles away and is a cornerstone of the U.S. space weather early warning system, delivering storm imagery to forecasters within 30 minutes of capture.
Forecasts aren't perfect, and warning time varies from storm to storm. ESA's Vigil, planned for 2031, aims to add up to four to five days' notice of some effects.
Source: NOAA, SOLAR-1 enters new era of space weather monitoring
Myth
Fact
Agencies are acting. ESA guided its Aeolus satellite down in 2023 in the first assisted reentry of its kind, and ESA's Zero Debris approach aims to sharply limit new debris from its missions by 2030.
The problem is still growing: ESA's 2025 report says better rule-following is not yet enough to stop debris from increasing. Removal missions are the next step.
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