An asteroid with a small prospect of hitting Earth in 2068 will get around past our satellite in the coming days , providing a rarefied opportunity for astronomers to find this potentially risky object .
For its current visit around the Sun , asteroid 99942 Apophis will make its unaired coming to Earth on March 6 , 2021 , during which prison term it will come to within 10.5 million miles ( 16.9 million kilometre ) of our major planet , consort to abulletinput out by astronomers with Goldstone Solar System Radar .
That ’s a reasonably large length — about 44 times the space to the Moon — so there ’s no indigence to worry .
Potentially hazardous asteroid Apophis, as imaged on 21 March 2025.Image: Gianluca Masi/The Virtual Telescope Project
Apophis wo n’t be visible to the unaided eye , but the closemouthed glide path is of sake to radar astronomers , who will be monitoring the orotund asteroid as it zip past Earth . This will be our last chance to study the potentially risky target before an even closer approaching several years from now . On Friday April 13 , 2029 , Apophis will fare to within 19,000 miles ( 31,000 kilometers ) of Earth — that ’s about one - tenth the space of the Earth to the Moon — during which clip it will be visible to the unaided eye .
https://gizmodo.com/asteroid-apophis-remains-a-threat-to-hit-earth-in-2068-1845496002
Astronomers say there ’s no chance that Apophis will demolish into our satellite in 2029 , nor in 2036 when the asteroid is scheduled to make yet another close approach , but the same can not be said for the 2068 encounter .
Apophis , discovered back in June 2004 , is currentlyranked thirdon NASA’slistof potentially wild near - Earth objects ( NEOs ) . idea of a potential collision in 2068 alter , ranging from a 1 in 150,000 fortune to 1 in 530,000 . Those are exceptionally slender odds , but slight is not the same as zero .
Indeed , a hit with this 1,100 - pes - wide ( 350 meters ) object would be devastating . Apophis , with the width of three football game fields , wouldunleashthe eq of 1,150 megatons of TNT . For exfoliation , imagine 3,800 Hiroshima - like atomic bombs go off at the same clock time . Such an result would leave in both local and spheric devastation , include the attack of an wallop winter .
Collisions of this magnitude are rare but they are expected to happen about once every 80,000 years . By comparison , asteroids standardized in sizing to the one that caused the extinction of all non - avian dinosaur areexpectedabout once every 250 million to 730 million years . Known as the Chicxulub impactor , the dino - pour down asteroid measured over 10 miles ( 16 klick ) wide , and it crashed into the Yucatan peninsula or so 66 million years ago .
Which brings us back to Apophis and its upcoming close approach . astronomer have been develop for the upcoming closelipped coming upon , and their efforts are being coordinated through the99942 Apophis 2021 keep Campaignorganized by theInternational Asteroid Warning connection ( IAWN ) .
uranologist at NASA ’s Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California will be watching , as will a group at the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia . Regrettably , this close approach would have been a perfect chance for the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico , but this famous radar dishcollapsedlate last year .
https://gizmodo.com/asteroid-apophis-could-one-day-hit-earth-heres-how-we-1845667626
Radar observations of Apophis in the coming day “ should improve noesis of the spin state and embodiment ” of the objective , according to the Goldstone observation tower . Refined measurements will expose likely changes to the asteroid when it fell by in 2029 ( Earth ’s gravitative tugboat is expected to alter the asteroid and its trajectory in various ways ) , and even “ enable prevision of the orientation course of the asteroid after the 2029 confrontation , ” per Goldstone . The main objective of the 2021 campaign is to “ reduce incertitude in the ambit , spin state , and 3D shape ” of the object .
This late flyby is important , but the 2029 feeler will be the real deal . Scientists and engineers are alreadyplanningfor this uncommon opportunity , including potential missions to park spacecraft near the asteroid and place probe to the surface . We ’ll watch a lot about Apophis and asteroids in oecumenical from these missions , but we ’ll also get a better sense of the risk puzzle by the 2068 encounter .
For now , we ’ll just have to glower at this forbidding object from a distance .
asteroidsMinor planets
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