Technology
Enormous asteroid ‘visible to naked eye’ to soar near Earth and Nasa races to probe ‘potentially hazardous’ space rock
NASA is sending a space probe to investigate a massive asteroid that will come terrifyingly close to Earth in less than seven years from now.
The rock’s colossal size and near approach will make it visible to the naked eye for billions to see on April 13, 2029.
Heather RoperArtist impression spacecraft arriving at asteroid Apophis[/caption]
Apophis, as it’s called, is officially classed as “potentially hazardous” because it’ll get within just 20,000 miles to Earth.
At first, experts thought the asteroid could pose a threat to our planet.
Thankfully further analysis shows that won’t it hit us but will come as close as some of our satellites.
That doesn’t mean scientists aren’t intrigued to learn more about the rock.
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So Nasa is going to send a spacecraft after it and collect samples for study.
The probe in question is actually already in space.
OSIRIS-REx is currently on its way back to Earth with samples from another asteroid.
Under new plans, the spacecraft will make a brief drop in on September 24, 2023, with bits from the Bennu asteroid.
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Then it will set off to Apophis for a second mission.
“Apophis is one of the most infamous asteroids,” said Dani DellaGiustina, principle investigator.
“When it was first discovered in 2004, there was concern that it would impact the Earth in 2029 during its close approach.
“That risk was retired after subsequent observations, but it will be the closest an asteroid of this size has gotten in the 50 or so years asteroids have been closely tracked, or for the next 100 years of asteroids we have discovered so far.
“It gets within one-tenth the distance between the Earth and moon during the 2029 encounter.
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“People in Europe and Africa will be able to see it with the naked eye, that’s how close it will get.
“We were stoked to find out the mission was extended.”
The Planetary SocietyApophis is about 450 meters wide and 170 meters tall[/caption]
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