God of Chaos Asteroid Apophis is Headed for Earth—and NASA is Excited

newsweek ^ | 4/30/19 at 6:29 AM EDT | By Aristos Georgiou On

[BenLurkin]

On April 13, 2029, a 1,110-foot-wide asteroid known as 99942 Apophis will speed past our planet at an estimated distance of around 19,000 miles, potentially coming closer to the surface than some orbiting spacecraft.

Despite being a decade away, this future close encounter is causing quite a stir within the asteroid research community. So much so that it is the focus of a session Tuesday at the 2019 Planetary Defense Conference in College Park, Maryland, during which scientists will discuss everything from potential observation strategies to hypothetical missions that could explore the object itself.

On the day of the close approach, the asteroid will be visible to the naked eye, appearing like a moving star in the sky over the Southern Hemisphere. Beginning its journey above Australia, it will soar over the Atlantic Ocean in just an hour, before reaching the West Coast of the United States in the early evening. It is during this passage that scientists will be able to make the most important observations of the object—casting light on its size, shape, composition and possibly even its interior.

"While we cannot yet completely rule out a collision of Apophis after 2060, those chances are extremely small, less than 1 in 100,000."

[DuncanWaring]

Lucifer's Hammer.

[Waverunner]

Apophis was elected president.

[SkyDancer]

Well, the only thing you can do is:

[BenLurkin]

[SkyDancer]

There’s another one just as funny where these guys are on a golf course and the bomb went off.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

On April 5, 2029, it will be discovered that Apophis is actually a giant ball of ice and rock -- a comet, as it were -- and that it will impact in the desert just west of Phoenix, Arizona.