US Edition"God of Chaos" Asteroid Will Pass Close to Earth in 3 Years, NASA Says
NASA says the 375-meter asteroid will pass safely and let scientists watch Earth’s gravity reshape its spin, surface and orbit.
- On April 13, 2029, the near-Earth asteroid 99942 Apophis will pass within roughly 20,000 miles of Earth, closer than many orbiting satellites, and appear visible to the naked eye from the Eastern Hemisphere.
- Astronomers Roy Tucker, David Tholen, and Fabrizio Bernardi discovered the object on June 19, 2004, and early impact calculations earned it the nickname "God of Chaos," though subsequent radar tracking has eliminated collision risks for at least 100 years.
- Measuring 1,115 feet across, Apophis will experience intense tidal forces as Earth's gravity potentially "stretches" and "squeezes" the asteroid, possibly triggering surface landslides and altering its rotation during the close encounter.
- NASA's OSIRIS-APEX spacecraft will orbit Apophis in June 2029 to study encounter effects, while the European Space Agency's Ramses mission will observe the flyby, gathering high-resolution data on asteroid composition and internal structure.
- Experts note that such close approaches by objects this size occur only once every few thousand years, making this event critical for refining planetary defense systems and improving future impact prediction models.
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39 Articles
'Colossal God Of Chaos' Asteroid Expected To Pass So Close To Earth It Will Be Seen Without A Telescope
No need to panic, but Apophis, the “Colossal God of Chaos” asteroid, is expected to pass close enough to Earth that observers will be able to see it without telescopes. The giant space rock, named after the Egyptian god of chaos and eternal darkness, will pass by Earth on April 13, 2029, according to NASA. (That’s right. It will pass by Earth on Friday the 13th.) A “potentially hazardous asteroid,” Apophis, should be visible from the Eastern Hem…
An asteroid the size of three football fields is approaching Earth, dubbed Apophis, or "god of chaos." It is expected to whiz past our planet in three years, at one point coming within just 32,000 kilometers of Earth, closer than many satellites in our orbit.
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