Apophis

On Friday April 13th 2029 asteroid 99942 Apophis will make a near earth miss, passing our planet at approximately 19,600 miles distance. This is tiny in astronomical terms; by comparison the earth is about 8,000 miles in diameter and the moon is about 245,000 miles away. The pass is so close that it will be inside the geosynchronous orbits of some satellites.

Apophis dimensions are approximately 350 x 450 meters with an estimated mass of 50 million metric tones and will be travelling at nearly 5 miles a second as it passes us on Friday the 13th … what could possibly go wrong 😑

https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/asteroids/apophis-facts/

@diver said
On Friday April 13th 2029 asteroid 99942 Apophis will make a near earth miss, passing our planet at approximately 19,600 miles distance. This is tiny in astronomical terms; by comparison the earth is about 8,000 miles in diameter and the moon is about 245,000 miles away. The pass is so close that it will be inside the geosynchronous orbits of some satellites.

Apophis dimens ...[text shortened]... … what could possibly go wrong 😑

https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/asteroids/apophis-facts/

@diver

We'll see if they try to alter its path by then

@diver
Yeah, Friday the 13th might be a less than fortunate date for that to fly by. It's insane how many NEOs (Near Earth Objects) pass by the Earth every day. The number of catalogued objects increases by the hour, and often a few slip under NASA's radar. For objects that have such short orbital periods, it is surprising that these larger asteroids aren't always detected until they are within a few months of flyby. Additionally, our instruments to calculate the exact location of an asteroid that will pass 10 years from now simply don't have the precision to be accurate. This leads to situations like the one two years ago where everyone was panicking about 2024 YR4 hitting the Earth in a few years. After NASA recalibrated its instruments and set a more accurate location based off of the asteroid's current trajectory, they placed its passing point about twice as far as they had originally predicted. Unfortunately, news outlets did not much care that NASA revised the original prediction and continued spouting out articles about how "everyone will die in 2032." The last one I saw was back at the end of 2025, long after NASA had changed their calculations. Sigh...the evils of journalism...
Cool post, @diver!!

@VDB1909
Unfortunately, news outlets did not much care that NASA revised the original prediction
and continued spouting out articles about how "everyone will die in 2032."
=============

that's because it sells

Interesting video on asteroids; near earth and hits.

BTW Vertasium is an excellent channel to follow on YouTube.

YouTube

@diver said
On Friday April 13th 2029 asteroid 99942 Apophis will make a near earth miss, passing our planet at approximately 19,600 miles distance. This is tiny in astronomical terms; by comparison the earth is about 8,000 miles in diameter and the moon is about 245,000 miles away. The pass is so close that it will be inside the geosynchronous orbits of some satellites.

Apophis dimens ...[text shortened]... … what could possibly go wrong 😑

https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/asteroids/apophis-facts/

@Earl-of-Trumps said
@VDB1909
Unfortunately, news outlets did not much care that NASA revised the original prediction
and continued spouting out articles about how "everyone will die in 2032."
=============

that's because it sells

@Earl-of-Trumps said
@VDB1909
Unfortunately, news outlets did not much care that NASA revised the original prediction
and continued spouting out articles about how "everyone will die in 2032."
=============

that's because it sells

@diver said
On Friday April 13th 2029 asteroid 99942 Apophis will make a near earth miss, passing our planet at approximately 19,600 miles distance. This is tiny in astronomical terms; by comparison the earth is about 8,000 miles in diameter and the moon is about 245,000 miles away. The pass is so close that it will be inside the geosynchronous orbits of some satellites.

Apophis dimens ...[text shortened]... … what could possibly go wrong 😑

https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/asteroids/apophis-facts/

The first pass will miss the earth.

The earth's gravity will change the path of the second pass.

2036 we might get hit 🤷

I saw something a long time ago that the current math would indicate it could hit Africa/area

Nothing will be known until that first pass is altered by the earth's gravity.

Also, when it passes earth in 2029, the gravity from earth will change the trajectory as it heads towards the moon.

Current math has a moon miss at 90k miles.

Very close calls and 2036 will be very interesting 🤔

The 2036 pass should be much farther away than the 2029 pass but all the pull from earth's gravity and the moons gravity, plus apophis hitting all that space junk could alter the trajectory.