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Sure
April 13, 2029, a grain of light will spread in the sky, becoming more and more brilliant
and faster. At one point, it will travel more than the width of the full moon inside
a minute and it will become as bright as the stars of the Little Dipper. But this
will not be a satellite or an airplane – it will be a width of 1100 feet (340 meters wide)
asteroid close to Earth called 99942 Apophis who will sail harmlessly on Earth,
approximately 19,000 miles (31,000 kilometers) above the surface. It's in the distance
as some of our spaceships orbiting the Earth.
the
the international asteroid research community could not be more excited.
This
week at 2019
Planetary Defense Conference in College Park, Maryland, scientists
meet to discuss observation plans and scientific opportunities for the
heavenly event another decade. During a meeting on April 30, scientists
will discuss everything from how to observe the event to hypothetical missions
we could send to the asteroid.
"The
Apophis' close approach in 2029 will be an incredible opportunity for science ",
said Marina Brozovi?, a radar scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, California, works on radar observation of Near Earth Objects (NEO).
"We will observe the asteroid with optical and radar telescopes.
radar observations, we might be able to see the details of the surface that are only a few
meters in size. "
His
rare for an asteroid of this size to pass so close to the Earth. Although
scientists have spotted small asteroids, of the order of 5 to 10 meters, flying close to
Earth at a similar distance, asteroids the size of Apophis are much less numerous
number and therefore do not pass as close to Earth as often.
the
asteroid, resembling a star-shaped point of light in motion, will become first
visible to the naked eye in the night sky above the southern hemisphere, flying overhead
Land of the east coast at the west coast of Australia. It will be
mid-morning on the east coast of the United States when Apophis is above
Australia. It will then cross the Indian Ocean and, in the afternoon, in the
east of the United States, it will have crossed the equator, but still moving westward, over Africa.
At the closest approach, just before 6 pm EDT, Apophis will be over the Atlantic Ocean
– and he will go so fast that he will cross the Atlantic in just one hour. By
7 pm EDT, the asteroid will have crossed the United States.
A
A team of astronomers from the Kitt Peak National Observatory discovered Apophis in
June 2004.
Astronomers were only able to detect the asteroid two days before technical problems occurred.
and weather problems prevented further observations. Fortunately, another team
rediscovered the asteroid at the Siding Spring Survey in Australia later than
year. The observations made a lot of noise – initial orbital calculations
revealed that the asteroid had a 2.7% chance of impacting the Earth in 2029.
Fortunately, additional observations completely excluded this possibility.
Since
Since its discovery, optical and radar telescopes have followed Apophis
continues on its orbit around the Sun, so we know very well its future trajectory.
Current calculations show that Apophis still has a small chance to make an impact
Earth, less than 1 in 100,000 in here several decades, but future measures of
it can be expected that its position will eliminate any possible impact.
the
the most important observations of Apophis will take place in 2029, when the asteroid
scientists around the world will have the opportunity to make a close up
study of the size, shape, composition and possibly the interior of Apophis.
AT
the conference, scientists will discuss issues such as "How the Earth
gravity affects the asteroid during its passage? "" Can we use Apophis?
flyby to learn more about the inside of an asteroid? "and" Should we send a
space mission to Apophis? "
"We
already know that the close encounter with the Earth will change the orbit of Apophis,
but our models also show that the near approach could change the way this asteroid
turns, and it is possible that there will be surface changes, such as small
avalanches, "said Davide Farnocchia, an astronomer at the JPL Training Center
Studies on Near-Earth Objects (CNEOS), which co-chairs the April 30 session on
Apophis with Brozovi?
"Apophis
represents about 2,000 currently known as potentially dangerous
Asteroids (PHAs), "said Paul Chodas, director of CNEOS. While observing
Apophis during its flight of 2029, we will acquire important scientific knowledge that
could one day be used for planetary defense ".
Media contact
Dwayne Brown / JoAnna Wendel
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726 / 202-358-1003
[email protected] / [email protected]
DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
818-393-9011
[email protected]
209-079
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