Extraterrestrial visitors frequently come to our planet, whether we like it or not. Although they’re not also conscious beings, as far as we know, they can exterminate all life forms if their shapes exceed certain sizes. The Chicxulub impactor that wiped out the dinosaurs, for example, was measuring tens of miles wide.
BGR.com writes about the Apophis asteroid that passes by Earth today, March 5, and it measures about 1,000 feet wide. That’s not exactly the ideal size to end the world, but surely you wouldn’t want the rock to land anywhere near your town.
No need to worry
The Apophis asteroid will successfully miss us, according to scientists. Other concerns were that the space rock would make his return in 2029, but closer observations determined that we’ll also be safe in that year from any impact with Apophis.
NASA wrote, according to BGR:
At its farthest, Apophis can reach a distance of about 2 astronomical units (One astronomical unit, abbreviated as AU, is the distance from the Sun to Earth.) away from Earth. It’s expected to safely pass close to Earth — within 19,794 miles (31,860 kilometers) from our planet’s surface — on April 13, 2029. This is the closest approach by an asteroid of this size that scientists have known about in advance.
Don’t miss Apophis as it approaches
There’s not even necessary to be a professional stargazer to delight your eyes with the arrival of Apophis. The asteroid can even be seen with higher-end hobbyist gear if you don’t possess advanced ‘toys’ as astronomers do.
Luckily for all of us, there’s no clue of a giant asteroid smashing into Earth in the near future. Many astronomers believe such a scenario will definitely happen again in the future as it happened during the dinosaurs’ extinction, as it’s only a matter of ‘when’.
