An asteroid will fly pretty close to Earth and scientists are excited
In about five years’ time, a potentially hazardous asteroid will swing by Earth at an eerily close distance of less than 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers). During this rare encounter, Apophis will be ten times closer to Earth than the Moon and scientists want to take full advantage of its visit.
Apophis is a on trajectory towards an Earth flyby on April 13, 2029. When it was first discovered in 2004, the 1,100-foot-wide (335 meters) near-Earth object was designated as a hazardous asteroid that could impact our planet. Later observations, however, reassured scientists that there’s no need to panic just yet, and that the asteroid has no chance of crashing into Earth for at least another century .
That’s very good news given the size of this object and the serious damage it would inflict should it some day strike our planet. Hopefully that’ll never happen, but objects of this size tend to hit Earth about once every 80,000 years, unleashing catastrophic damage and global-scale impact winters.
During its upcoming flyby, scientists want to explore the asteroid to determine whether Earth’s gravitational field will have an impact on Apophis’ orientation, composition, and spin. It could result in asteroid quakes, for example, causing a shift in how its materials are distributed within, or alter the appearance of its surface. Scientists hope to chronicle these potential changes by comparing observations of the asteroid before and after its 2029 encounter with Earth. Physical changes to the asteroid could alter its orbital path, so it’s clearly something scientists will want to document.
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