An asteroid the size of the Eiffel Tower will move past Earth on Friday (March 5) and be out of our planetary territory until 2029.
The space rock, named Apophis (an ancient Egyptian demon), was first spotted in 2004 and poses no danger. Earth during this week’s passing; it will move past the planet at more than 40 times the distance from the earth to the moon. But scientists are using this week as a dress rehearsal for the next pass of the asteroid, on April 13, 2029, when Apophis will come as close to Earth as some of the satellites with the highest orbit.
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“Apophis in 2029 is going to be an incredible observation opportunity for us,” Marina Brozović, a radar scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, told Live Science’s sister site. Space.com. “But before we get to 2029, we’re preparing.”
A short fly
Apophis is 340 meters wide and is made of rock, iron and nickel. It’s probably shaped like a peanut, although astronomers will have a better idea of its shape if it passes by Earth this week, according to NASA.
The asteroid takes a full orbit around the sun about every 11 months. On March 5, it will come within 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) of Earth at 20:15 EST (0115 GMT on March 6). It’s too far to be seen with the naked eye, but scientists will use planetary radar to image Apophis as it flies using NASA’s Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California and the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. They hope to determine the shape of the asteroid and learn more about the way it rotates.
“We know that Apophis is in a very complicated state, it’s spinning and tumbling at the same time,” Richard Binzel, a planetary scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told Space.com.
Get closer
This planetary radar study provides researchers with a baseline for the much closer fly in 2029, when Apophis will come as close as 31,900 kilometers from Earth. It is close enough that the Earth’s gravity can change the shape of the asteroid or scatter the rocks on its surface. Binzel says how and whether the asteroid changes as it flies by will reveal details about the inner structure of the asteroid.
With its closest approach in 2029, Apophis will soon be visible to the naked eye across Western Australia and become as bright as the stars in the Big Dipper. It will be closest to Earth at 18:00 EDT on April 13, 2029, when it will cross the Atlantic Ocean – an ocean that will cross it in just an hour. The asteroid will cross the United States by 7 p.m. EDT.
Apophis is named after an ancient Egyptian demon who personified chaos and evil, mainly because astronomers initially calculated that the asteroid would affect a 3% chance on Earth on its 2029 flight. They have now shown that the asteroid does not in 2029 with the earth will not collide nor with the next pass in 2036. The asteroid is still a small chance can hit the earth in 2068, but the 2021 and 2029 flights should give astronomers more information to calculate Apophis’ future.
Originally published on Live Science.