Scientists and astronomers closely monitor asteroid Apophis as it approaches Earth

This year has been an extremely active year for asteroid and comet news with NASA’s OSIRIS-REX hitting asteroid Bennu last month, and a veritable flurry of comets hissing past our Big Blue Marble like F3 Neowise, F8 Swan , P1 Neowise, M3 Atlas and S3 Erasmus are hitting the skies this fall.

Now, a team of astronomers from the University of Hawaii have warned that there is little chance that an asteroid named after Apophis, the Egyptian god of chaos, could come into close contact with Earth in 48 years in 2068. Recent observations have seen slight changes in the orbit of the impending asteroid, and although the cause for concern is firmly in the minds of scientists, the actual chances of a collision are still very low.

“We have known for some time that an impact with Earth is not possible as we approach 2029. The new observations we got with the Subaru telescope earlier this year were good enough to reveal the Yarkovsky acceleration. of Apophis, ”explained University of Hawaii astronomer Dave Tholen.

“They show that the asteroid is moving away from a pure gravitational orbit of around 170 meters per year, which is enough to keep the 2068 impact scenario in play.”

Tholen and his team first discovered Apophis in 2004, and the rushing space rock is actually first slated to pass Earth in 2029 in a completely harmless transit with no opportunity for anything dramatic. On its closest approach on April 13, 2029, Apophis will zoom so close to Earth that the 1,000-foot-wide body will navigate between our world and its external network of communications satellites, and might even be visible to the naked eye.

Tholen and his team’s findings were presented at a 2020 meeting of the American Astronomical Society, where they revealed they have been closely following and monitoring Apophis’ mobile orbit since 2004.

In an orbital process called the Yarkovsky effect, astronomers found that Apophis increased its speed slightly.

This slight surge is caused by the surfaces of the asteroids heating up during the day and cooling them at night, rejecting the radiation in the form of heat that acts as a mini-thruster and sometimes causing the rotating asteroids to roam widely in their orbits. This obviously makes it difficult for scientists to accurately predict long-term risks to our planet.

International space agencies are constantly monitoring celestial objects that could pose a threat, which is essential when it comes to an asteroid with the characteristics of Apophis that has a tiny but real chance of inflicting damage.

To help combat future asteroid intruders and in a perfectly timed operation, NASA and SpaceX are launching the DART mission in 2021, which will act as a training exercise in which a small spacecraft could be used to strike and deflect from dangerous rogue space rocks from Earth.