Massive asteroid ‘Apophis’ may hit Earth in 2068

Researchers at University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy (IfA) in the US, have announced the detection of Yarkovsky acceleration on the near-Earth asteroid Apophis.

Asteroid Apophis, about the size of three-and-a-half football fields, may crash into Earth in 2068 due to a phenomenon called Yarkovsky effect, which has eventually accelerated its flow and deviated it from its orbit. Astronomers said that the possibility of the collision is almost negligible but cannot be ruled out. Let’s read in detail the structure, size and exploration of the asteroid.

Asteroid 99942 Apophis is a near-Earth asteroid more than 1,000 feet (over 300 meters) in size that will harmlessly pass close to Earth on April 13, 2029. When it was discovered in 2004, the asteroid caused a stir because initial calculations indicated a small possibility it would impact Earth in 2029.
It’s now predicted the asteroid will safely pass about 31,900 kilometres from our planet’s surface. It’s rare for an asteroid of this size to pass so close to Earth, although smaller asteroids, in the range of 16 to 33 feet, in size have been observed passing by at similar distances.

Exploration

Apophis was discovered on June 19, 2004, by astronomers Roy Tucker, David Tholen and Fabrizio Bernardi at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Tucson, Arizona. They were only able to observe the asteroid for two days because of technical and weather problems. Fortunately, a team at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia spotted the asteroid again later in the same year.

Formation

Like all asteroids, Apophis is a remnant from the early formation of our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. There are no high-resolution images of the surface of asteroid Apophis, but it is likely similar to surfaces of other stony-type asteroids like Itokawa, the first asteroid from which samples were captured and brought to Earth for analysis.

Size and Distance

Apophis is a 1,120-foot-wide (340-metre) asteroid. That’s about the size of three-and-a-half football fields. At its farthest, Apophis can reach a distance of about 2 astronomical units (One astronomical unit or AU, is the distance from the Sun to Earth.) away from Earth.
It’s expected to safely pass close to Earth 31,860 kilometers from our planet’s surface — on April 13, 2029. This is the closest approach by an asteroid of this size that scientists have known about in advance.

Orbit and Rotation

The orbit of Apophis crosses the orbit of Earth. It completes an orbit around the Sun in a bit less than one Earth year (about 0.9 years). This places it in the group of Earth-crossing asteroids known as “Atens,” whose orbits are smaller in width than the width of Earth’s orbit, or 1 AU.

Impact of collision

Based on its size and speed, Nasa calculates the force of impact would be equivalent to 1,200,000 kilotons of kinetic energy. For comparison, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 exploded with the force of 15 kilotons of TNT. It’s thought that an Apophis strike would decimate an area of thousands of square miles, leaving behind a 3.2-mile-wide crater.

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