Apophis: Closest Asteroid To Almost Hit The EarthPosted on 21 December 2009 by pinoytutorial
What do you think first when you hear about the word ‘Asteroid’ ? To a scientist its a celestial being capable of doing damage once it hits another heavenly body like our planet, for an average individual – it’s a humungous blab of rock that will bring forth the Armageddon to the entire human race, once it hits the Earth, to a child? Ice Age!
apophis thumb Apophis: Closest Asteroid To Almost Hit The Earth
Recently, Nasa had unveiled a possible scenario of an asteroid with a size of 900 Feet (almost 300 meters) hitting the Earth on April, 2029 with a 1 on 250,000 chance – named Apophis.
Today’s impact monitoring results indicate that the impact probability for April 13, 2029 has risen to about 1.6%, which for an object of this size corresponds to a rating of 4 on the ten-point Torino Scale.
Torino Scale: Use to assess the impact hazard of an Asteroid, a rating of 4 suggest a close encounter, meriting attention by astronomers. Current calculations give a 1% or greater chance of collision capable of regional devastation.
Since December 2004, Asteroid Apophis a.k.a MN4 caused a brief major concern for the scientists. It was predicted that it has a 2.7% chance of hitting the Earth in 2029. Later on deviations of the asteroid and calculations of scientists alters in favor of the latter – The result below speaks for itself. (click to enlarge)
apophis1 thumb Apophis: Closest Asteroid To Almost Hit The Earth
Latest updates from NASA calms the people suggesting that the odds against impact are still high, about 60 to 1, meaning that there is a better than 98% chance that new data in the coming days, weeks, and months will rule out any possibility of impact in 2029
See the 3D simulation of Apophis and its chance on hitting the Earth. (loading might take a while)
So far, Apophis is the closest encounter of Earth to an asteroid – A close approach to Earth on Friday, April 13, 2029, when it comes no closer than 18,300 miles above Earth’s surface.
Trivia: For those 2012 fans who still can’t get over with that apocalyptic fever. The Torino Scale to produce such catastrophic phenomenon is 10.
A collision is certain, capable of causing global climatic catastrophe that may threaten the future of civilization as we know it, whether impacting land or ocean. Such events occur on average once per 100,000 years, or less often.
That doesn’t sound so exciting to see now, does it?
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