There are several disaster movies out there that show what it could be like if a giant asteroid or comet affected the earth. Asteroids have hit Earth in the distant past, and such an impact is attributed to the fact that they wiped out the vast majority of dinosaurs from the planet. One of the major asteroids moving through our solar system is known as Apophis.
The official name is 99942 Apophis (2004 MN4), and according to the ESA, the asteroid is one of the ten most dangerous out there. Apophis is the ancient Egyptian god of chaos and darkness, and his asteroid namesake will approach Earth in 2029. Scientists estimate that it has about a three percent chance of hitting our planet if it takes the near approach, which is rare.
Scientists estimate that Apophis is about ten times the size of the meteor that exploded in Russia’s atmosphere in 2013. That Russian meteorite exploded with enough force to smash windows on the ground and injure hundreds of people. The ESA says there is only one known asteroid that has more than one in every 100 chances of affecting the Earth, and that is not Apophis.
That asteroid is a 26-meter-wide space rock known as RF12 from 2010. That asteroid has about a seven percent chance of hitting the earth in 2095. However, its small size means that most of it will burn in the atmosphere, making it significantly smaller than the Russian asteroid in 2013.
Although the small chance that Apophis could affect the earth is in 2029, it will take a close approach to the earth on March 5 this year. On that day, it will pass within 16.8 million kilometers of the earth.