tech2 News Staff02 March 2021 15:20:26 IST
Experts in planetary defense rely on the popular asteroid Apophis to try their hand at calculations and abilities to prevent fatal collisions of asteroids that pose a danger on Earth. Apophis is expected to make a short pass of the earth on March 5th. Experts and scientists in planetary defense will probably use the near fly as an opportunity to refine maps of its exact path and see how the orbit of the asteroid behaves in relation to the earth. Asteroid 99942 Apophis is more than 1,000 feet tall and is about the size of the Eiffel Tower.
Scientists from all over the world have been invited to observe Apophis, to strengthen the planetary defense system. Vishnu Reddy, a planetary defense expert at the University of Arizona who coordinates the observation campaign, tell Space.com that the project will be a ‘coalition of volunteers’, after which the scientists will ‘undertake this campaign to try to observe this object’. The upcoming campaign, which is on the IAWN website, states that the asteroid will be the closest approximation on March 6, 2021 at 1.06 hours UTC (6.46 am IST). Although the 2021 fly is not fairly close to Earth, Apophis should go closer in 2029, will be within ~ 40,000 km of Earth.
Apophis is a large asteroid near Earth, which is expected to move near Earth in 2029, 2036 and again in 2068. The impact in 2029 and 2036 was already ruled out. As of February 2021, the chance of impact during Ap68s in 2068 is now 1 in 3,80,000 (99.9997% changes due to the lack of the earth). Image: NASA
The International Asteroid Warning Network has twice organized similar observation campaigns in the past, with asteroids 2012 TC4 and 1999 KW4.
Apophis calculated as a possible collision course with the Earth in the past. According to a recent study, the probability (1 in 1 50 000) of the asteroid is very small Earth in the year 2068. Apophis is large enough to inflict great damage if there were such a collision, making it a suitable practice target for any actual spatial damage that may come upon us in the future.
Apophis’s Earth flyby in 2029. Image: NASA
Planetary defense is not hopeless: if humans identify a dangerous asteroid long enough before impact, we could theoretically do something to divert it, according to a Space.com report. The successful prevention of damage due to an asteroid impact depends on the observation of the threat in time.
Asteroids, as they travel through the universe, can swing at planet Earth at dangerous speeds. These deadly asteroids can do great damage to the Earth’s ecosystem above a certain threshold size and speed, not unlike the asteroid known for the onset of a snowball effect that ended in the extinction of more than 70 percent of life. on earth, including the dinosaurs. This has kept many scientists concerned about the implications but also solutions to defend the planet against such incidents.
Although space rocks are in most cases too small to cause damage or fly away without any collision, scientists agree that monitoring of any large asteroid that could be potentially dangerous is necessary.
Also read: JF1, Apophis to graze the earth in 2020; planetary defense courtesy of NASA, ESA is still in progress
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