![]() ![]() “A 2068 impact is not in the realm of possibility anymore, and our calculations don’t show any impact risk for at least the next 100 years,” said Davide Farnocchia of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies ( CNEOS), which is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. When Apophis made a distant flyby of Earth around March 5, 2021, astronomers took the opportunity to use powerful radar observations to refine the estimate of its orbit around the Sun with extreme precision, enabling them to confidently rule out any impact risk in 2068 and long after. Until March 2021, however, a small chance of impact in 2068 still remained. Thanks to additional observations of Apophis, the risk of an impact in 2029 was later ruled out, as was the potential impact risk posed by another close approach in 2036. But that impact assessment changed after astronomers tracked Apophis and its orbit became better determined.Ī radar observation campaign in March 2021, combined with precise orbit analysis, allowed astronomers to conclude that there is no risk of Apophis impacting our planet for at least a century.Įstimated to be about 1,100 feet (340 meters) across, Apophis quickly gained notoriety as an asteroid that could pose a serious threat to Earth when astronomers predicted that it would come uncomfortably close in 2029. When it was discovered in 2004, Apophis was identified as one of the most hazardous asteroids that could impact Earth. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech and NSF/AUI/GBOĪsteroid 99942 Apophis is a near-Earth object (NEO) estimated to be about 1,100 feet (340 meters) across. The asteroid was 10.6 million miles (17 million kilometers) away from Earth. These images of asteroid Apophis were recorded in March 2021 by radio antennas at the Deep Space Network’s Goldstone complex in California and the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia.
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