An animation shows Apophis' 2029 path compared to the swarm of satellites orbiting Earth.
(Image: © NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Posted on 02/12/2021 9:39:44 AM PST by BenLurkin
The March flyby won't be nearly as stunning as the 2029 close approach; Apophis will come only one-tenth of the average distance between the Earth and the sun, more than 40 times as distant as the moon is from Earth. But scientists have big goals for Apophis' 2029 flyby, and in order to get the most out of that opportunity, they need to know as much as possible about the space rock.
An animation shows Apophis' 2029 path compared to the swarm of satellites orbiting Earth.
(Image: © NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Apophis has been rattling around the inner solar system for millennia, unnoticed by humans. Scientists believe it is more than 1,000 feet (300 meters) wide, around the height of the Eiffel Tower. It's a mix of rock and metal, according to NASA, and may be shaped a bit like a peanut, two uneven lumps smooshed together.
Apophis seemed to run nearly 3% odds of colliding with Earth on April 13, 2029. (Even the best observations have some uncertainty, and the farther ahead in time an orbit is plotted, the more that uncertainty piles up.)
Some of Apophis' flybys are perfectly mundane, others quite close. But more precise observations pushed any collision fears first to 2036, then to 2068, when scientists can't quite positively rule out a collision yet.
Two asteroids of note have hit Earth in the past century or so. One flattened the Siberian forests of Tunguska in 1908, the other shattered in the skies above Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013.
They're nothing compared to Apophis. "Apophis is 300 times more massive than Tunguska, 5,000 times more massive than Chelyabinsk, so this is an object that certainly gets your attention,"
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
In the Mayan language “apophis” means “destroyer of earth”.
Just kidding.
Hope they get a good look and more at it and it gets posted here,
Remember when there was discussion about Obama's ring and some people though it had islamic writing on it? I did some close looking and research and turns out he was sporting a snake ring fashioned after the god of the very name of this asteroid and the script was actually coiled snakes.
So, bub-bye Apophis, you old son of a gun!
In plain English, that's about 9 MILLION miles.
A peanut shaped rock flying around in space.
Send out the Space Force with some jelly and we’ll all have lunch.
Goodbye Apophis, we barely knew you.
Apophis (also known as Apep) is the Great Serpent, enemy of the sun god Ra, in ancient Egyptian religion........................
...because she DID NOT write "Apophis will come only ten times less than the average distance..."
Better put SG-1 on standby.
They would be smart to put whatever towing equipment they think is advisable on the asteroid when it flies by in 2029.
Paging Bruce Willis... Bruce Willis to the white courtesy phone
Agreed! I get really annoyed when clueless idiots talk about X times LESS than something. Makes NO sense.
The other lunacy is “...times it by 5.” What the heck? Why can’t they just say “...multiply it by 5”?
Don’t get me started on “verse” as in “It’s the New York Yankees verse the Boston Red Sox.”
Aaaaggghhhh.
Re: Apophis will come only one-tenth of the average distance between the Earth and the sun, more than 40 times as distant as the moon is from Earth.
They don’t want to come right out and tell you the actual distance in miles because it’s still going to be ridiculously far away even during the 2029 “close approach”, in this case about 9 MILLION miles. How many readers have any idea how far the sun is from earth, or even how far the moon is.
Sun, on average, is approximately 92.5 million miles away, the moon, about 240,000.
Yeah, THIS time.
Just for reference, the 2029 pass is currently forecast to be about 23,000 miles from earth i.e. one tenth the distance between the Earth and the Moon. And there’s a notable margin of error, which is why there’s still that nagging kernel of doubt even though they’ve “eliminated” the possibility of a collision this time around.
Apophis is about 300 meters in diameter.
Thats close enough to be deflected by eartgs gravity
April 13, 2029, will be a Friday.
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