10/30/2022 0 Comments Finetune odds asteroid hitting“Apophis is a representative of about 2,000 currently known Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs),” said Paul Chodas, director of CNEOS. “We already know that the close encounter with Earth will change Apophis’ orbit, but our models also show the close approach could change the way this asteroid spins, and it is possible that there will be some surface changes, like small avalanches,” said Davide Farnocchia, an astronomer at JPL’s Center for Near Earth Objects Studies (CNEOS), who is co-chairing the April 30 session on Apophis with Brozović. The most important observations of Apophis will occur in 2029, when asteroid scientists around the world will have an opportunity to conduct a close-up study of the Apophis’s size, shape, composition, and possibly even its interior.Īt the conference, scientists will discuss questions like “How will Earth’s gravity affect the asteroid as it passes by?”, “Can we use Apophis’ flyby to learn about an asteroid’s interior?”, and “Should we send a spacecraft mission to Apophis?” Current calculations show that Apophis still has a small chance of impacting Earth, less than 1 in 100,000 many decades from now, but future measurements of its position can be expected to rule out any possible impacts. Since its discovery, optical and radar telescopes have tracked Apophis as it continues on its orbit around the Sun, so we know its future trajectory quite well. Fortunately, additional observations refined the orbit and completely ruled out that possibility. The observations caused quite a stir-initial orbital calculations revealed that the asteroid had a 2.7% chance of impacting Earth in 2029. Luckily, another team rediscovered the asteroid at the Siding Spring Survey in Australia later that year. The astronomers were only able to detect the asteroid for two days before technical and weather issues prevented further observations. EDT, the asteroid will have crossed over the United States.Ī team of astronomers at the Kitt Peak National Observatory discovered Apophis in June 2004. EDT, Apophis will be over the Atlantic Ocean – and it will move so fast that it will cross the Atlantic in just an hour. it will have crossed the equator, still moving west, above Africa. It will then cross the Indian Ocean, and by the afternoon in the eastern U.S. It will be mid-morning on the East Coast of the United States when Apophis is above Australia. The asteroid, looking like a moving star-like point of light, will first become visible to the naked eye in the night sky over the southern hemisphere, flying above Earth from the east coast to the west coast of Australia. Although scientists have spotted small asteroids, on the order of 5-10 meters, flying by Earth at a similar distance, asteroids the size of Apophis are far fewer in number and so do not pass this close to Earth as often. It’s rare for an asteroid of this size to pass by the Earth so close. With radar observations, we might be able to see surface details that are only a few meters in size.” “We’ll observe the asteroid with both optical and radar telescopes. “The Apophis close approach in 2029 will be an incredible opportunity for science,” said Marina Brozović, a radar scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who works on radar observations of near-Earth objects (NEOs). That’s within the distance that some of our spacecraft that orbit Earth. But it won’t be a satellite or an airplane-it will be a 340-meter-wide near-Earth asteroid called 99942 Apophis that will cruise harmlessly by Earth, about 19,000 miles (31,000 km) above the surface. #FINETUNE ODDS ASTEROID HITTING FULL#At one point it will travel more than the width of the full Moon within a minute and it will get as bright as the stars in the Little Dipper. On April 13, 2029, a speck of light will streak across the sky getting brighter and faster.
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