tech2 News StaffMarch 02, 2021 3:20:26 PM IS
Planetary defense experts rely on the popular asteroid Apophis to try out calculations and capabilities to prevent deadly asteroid collisions that endanger life on Earth. Apophis is expected to pass close by Earth on March 5. Experts and scientists in planetary defense will likely use the close fly-by as an opportunity to refine maps of its precise path and see how the asteroid’s orbit behaves in relation to Earth’s. The asteroid 99942 Apophis is more than 300 meters in size and about the size of the Eiffel Tower.
Scientists from around the world have been invited to observe Apophis to help strengthen the planetary defense system. Vishnu Reddy, a planetary defense expert at the University of Arizona who coordinates the observation campaign, told Space.com that the project will be a “coalition of the willing”, after which the scientists will “continue this campaign to observe this object”. The upcoming campaign, featured on the OK website, states that the asteroid’s closest approach will be on March 6, 2021 at 1.06 a.m. UTC (6.46 a.m. IST). will be within ~ 40,000 km of Earth.
Apophis is a large asteroid near Earth, expected to pass close to Earth in 2029, 2036 and again in 2068. In 2029 and 2036, impacts were already excluded. As of February 2021, the odds of an in-flight impact from Apophis in 2068 is now 1 in 3.80,000 (99.9997% changes of it without Earth). Image: NASA
The International Asteroid Warning Network has organized similar observation campaigns twice in the past, with asteroids 2012 TC4 and 1999 KW4.
Apophis was calculated have been on a possible collision course with Earth several times in the past. A recent study claimed that there is a very small chance (1 in 1.50,000) that the asteroid will collide with it Earth in the year 2068Apophis is large enough to deal major damage should such a collision occur, making it a suitable training target for any space-induced damage that might come our way in the future.
Apophis’ Earth-flyby in 2029. Image: NASA
Planetary defense isn’t hopeless: If humans identify a dangerous asteroid long enough before impact, we could theoretically do something to infer it, according to one Space.com reportSuccessfully preventing damage from an asteroid impact depends on spotting the threat in time, which takes practice.
Asteroids can swing their way through the universe at dangerous speeds towards planet Earth. Above a certain threshold size and speed, these deadly asteroids can wreak havoc on Earth’s ecosystem, similar to the asteroid known for starting a snowball effect that ended in the extinction of more than 70 percent of life on Earth, including the dinosaurs. This has worried many scientists about the implications, as well as solutions to defend the planet against such incidents.
While space rocks are in most cases too small to cause damage or fly away without any collision, scientists agree the need to monitor every large asteroid that could prove potentially dangerous.
Also read: JF1, Apophis to graze the earth in the 2020s; Planetary defense courtesy of NASA, ESA is still ongoing
Killer asteroid destroys New York in planetary defense simulation exercise