Asteroid Apophis That May 'Potentially Hit Earth' to Pass Very Closely This Week! Will It Turn out to Be 'Doomsday Asteroid'? Everything You Need to Know

The dreaded Asteroid Apophis is said to have come very close to the earth. According to NASA scientists, on March 6, this asteroid will pass by the Earth. It is said that the space rock which some scientists believe may potentially hit Earth will come very close to our planet this week. With the help of a virtual telescope, astronomers have taken a picture of this monoidal asteroid from a distance of about 1.5 million kilometres. Significantly, Apophis is considered the Greatest of all potentially dangerous asteroids. There is a danger of this 370-meter wide rock hitting the earth in 48 years.

A huge asteroid will eventually hit humanity and there will be no way out, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has predicted. A monster asteroid called Apophis -- named after an Egyptian "God of Chaos" -- will come dangerously close to the Earth, about 19,000 miles (31,000 kms) above the surface. "Great name! Wouldn't worry about this particular one, but a big rock will hit Earth eventually & we currently have no defence," Musk tweeted

NASA scientists have expressed the very little possibility of it hitting the Earth. However, it is said that the Apophis asteroid will pass close to the Earth on 6 March and a live telecast of Asteroid Apophis will also be broadcast for 24 hours on the Virtual Telescope Project. It is considered to be one of the most dangerous rocks in the solar system, a devastating asteroid.

Can Asteroid Apophis be Seen?

Asteroid Apophis will pass a distance of about 16 million kilometres from the earth next month. The orbit of the asteroid will not be affected due to passing through such a distance. Asteroid Apophis can be easily seen with a telescope. This giant rock will pass even closer to the Earth in the year 2029. University of Hawaii astronomer David Tholen said that based on data from Subaru Telescope, it has been revealed that Apophis is gaining momentum very fast.

Apophis is more than 1,000 feet wide and its impact would be equivalent to 880 million tons of trinitrotoluene (TNT) exploding all at once. Astronomers discovered Apophis on June 19, 2004, at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. Since then it has been tracked as it orbits the sun, which it completes less than one Earth year. Researchers spotted Apophis with the Subaru telescope earlier this year and found that it had picked up speed following the analysis, known as the Yarkovsky effect.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 02, 2021 03:33 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).