Tech2 news staffMarch 2, 2021 at 3:20:26 p.m.
Planetary defense experts rely on the popular asteroid Apophis to try to make calculations and capabilities to avoid deadly asteroid collisions that pose a danger to life on Earth. Apophis is expected to take a step close to Earth on March 5. Experts and scientists in planetary defense will likely use the nearby flight as an opportunity to perfect maps of its precise trajectory and see how the asteroid’s orbit behaves relative to that of Earth. At more than 1,000 feet in size, asteroid 99942 Apophis is about the size of the Eiffel Tower.
Scientists around the world have been invited to observe Apophis, to help strengthen the planetary defense system. Vishnu Reddy, an expert in planetary defense at the University of Arizona who coordinates the observation campaign, he said Space.com that the project will be a “coalition of volunteers,” after which scientists “will do this campaign, trying to observe this object.” The next campaign, listed on the page Website OK, states that the closest approach to the asteroid will be at 1.06 UTC (6.46 IST) on March 6, 2021. Although the 2021 flight is not close enough to Earth, Apophis will have to make a step closer to 2029, when it will be about 40,000 km from Earth.
Apophis is a large asteroid close to Earth, which is expected to pass close to Earth in 2029, 2036 and again in 2068. Impacts in 2029 and 2036 had already been ruled out. As of February 2021, the chances of impact during the 2068 Apophis overflight are now 1 in 3.80,000 (99.9997% of the changes missing on Earth). Image: NASA
He International asteroid alert network has twice organized similar observation campaigns in the past, with asteroids 2012 TC4 and 1999 KW4.
Apophis was calculated as if in a possible course of collision with the Earth several times in the past. A recent study stated that there is a very small probability (1 in 1,50,000) that the asteroid will collide with it. The Earth in 2068. Apophis is large enough to cause significant damage if such a collision occurred, making it a suitable practical target for any actual damage caused by space rock that may come into our future.
Flight over the Earth from Apophis in 2029. Image: NASA
Planetary defense has no hope: if humans identify a dangerous asteroid long enough before impact, we could theoretically do something to deflect it, according to a Space.com report. Successfully preventing damage from an asteroid impact will depend on detecting the threat in time, which requires practice.
Asteroids, despite making their way into the universe, can launch into planet Earth at dangerous speeds. Above a certain size and threshold speed, these deadly asteroids can cause massive damage to the Earth’s ecosystem, unlike the asteroid famous for having started a snowball effect that ended in extinction. of more than 70 percent of life on Earth, including dinosaurs. This has kept many scientists worried about the implications, but also about the solutions to defend the planet against these incidents.
Although, in most cases, space rocks are too small to cause damage or fly without a collision, scientists agree that a large asteroid that can be dangerous needs to be controlled.
Also read: JF1, Apophis to graze the Earth in the 2020s; planetary defense courtesy of NASA, ESA is still underway
The killer asteroid destroys New York in a planetary defense simulation exercise