Harianjogja.com, JAKARTA – Of all the asteroids that have ever approached Earth, the one with the most potential to hit Earth is Apophis.
Earth will be at a fairly close distance on April 13, 2029 with the Asteroid Apophis.
The asteroid with a size of 340 meters will move across the earth with a distance of 31,000 km. The distance is closer than most satellites.
Because of its large size and close trajectory, the asteroid will look bright and can be seen with the naked eye.
The first Apophis asterois will be visible in the Southern Hemisphere. Seen as a very bright star streaking from the eastern sky to the west. Through Australia, then the Indian Ocean, and finally across the equator over Africa.
Fortunately, this historic event will not be as severe as experts predict.
Initially, scientists weren’t sure whether Apophis’ journey would make a collision with Earth.
The possibility that Earth’s gravitational effects could affect the asteroid in such a way that one of its subsequent spins could have an adverse impact on Earth.
“Apophis falls into the category of Hazardous Asteroids (PHA), which are asteroids with orbits that will bring them very close to Earth now and for centuries in the future,” said Richard Binzel, professor of planetary science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. .com.
Although we now know Apophis won’t be hitting Earth any time soon, the asteroid has topped the European Space Agency’s PHA and NASA Sentry Risk Tables for 17 years.
Apophis was discovered on June 19, 2004, by Roy A. Tucker, David J. Tholen and Fabrizio Bernardi while working at the Kitt Peak National Observatory. The object was identified at the time as MN4 2004.
In 2006, the possibility of Apophis hitting Earth in 2029 was negated. However, the impact in 2068 cannot be ignored. Apophis’ trajectory after flying in 2029 will depend on how Earth’s gravity changes the asteroid’s orbit, said Davide Farnocchia, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) who studies the asteroid’s trajectory.
Astronomers were unable to track Apophis from 2015 to 2019 because it was too close to the sun.
In late 2020 and early 2021 Farnocchia and his colleagues pooled and collected radar and optical tracking data to produce a precise trajectory for Apophis.
“Apophis has been tracked extensively since its discovery by optical and radar telescopes,” Farnocchia said. “Thanks to this data collected by astronomers around the world, we were able to accurately predict the movement of Apophis until the April 2029 flyby.”
Predicting the impact between our planet and an asteroid with the size, shape and density of Apophis is no easy task.
There are many factors to consider when estimating the damage that may result from such a collision. These factors include the asteroid’s size, density and mass, and angle and velocity.
We’ve run simulations of the impact between Apophis and Earth, but at 340 metres, the outcome of the Apophis scale impact with Earth is highly uncertain,” said Gareth Collins, a professor in the Department of Earth Science & Engineering at Imperial College London, United Kingdom.
The worst-case scenario for an impact of this magnitude is if it occurs near a large population center or near a densely populated coastline, Collins said.
But beyond that, Apophis’ journey in 2029 is a historic spectacle not to be missed. “An object the size of Apophis comes this close to Earth about only once every thousand years, on average,” Farnocchia said. “Don’t miss the chance to see it. I knew I wouldn’t!”
Source: JIBI/Bisnis.com
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