We know of the dinosaurs getting extinct after an asteroid crashing into Earth, and after that time no asteroid has hit Earth that was large enough to cause such damage.
But scientists have discovered an asteroid that will be reaching Earth in 2068, and it has the destructive power of 65,000 nuclear bombs. Should we be scared and start preparing for the end of the world? Now, there’s a catch, and it’s quite tricky.
Asteroid is moving under the Yarkovsky effect that no one can calculate
This asteroid is named Apophis, which means God of Chaos in Greek, and it is getting faster and faster as it gets close to Earth. After it entered the solar system, it has come under the Yarkovsky effect. And that has puzzled the scientists beyond any understanding.
According to the researchers at the University of Hawaii, this asteroid is 340 meters long and it is speeding up in a way no one can predict. So because of the Yarkovsky effect, we don’t know how fast will it be when it reaches Earth and we don’t know where exactly it will hit.
“The new observations we obtained with the Subaru telescope earlier this year were good enough to reveal the Yarkovsky acceleration of Apophis, and they show that the asteroid is drifting away from a purely gravitational orbit by about 170 meters per year, which is enough to keep the 2068 impact scenario in play.”
This is Yarkovsky effect and this is why scientists are clueless
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Under the Yarkovsky effect, the asteroid heats up in a strange way as it gets closer to the sun. The part facing the sun gets warmer, while the part away from the sun remains cold. This kind of heat difference creates a thrust and acceleration that is very difficult to predict.
And while some calculations earlier said that the Asteroid will safely whiz past Earth by a distance of 30,000 km – the discovery of Yarkovsky effect changes everything. That distance is nothing on a cosmic scale and even a small variation means it would hit the Earth.
The impact of this 340-meter asteroid will be 65,000 times stronger than the nuclear bomb the USA had dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
So it will visit Earth twice and hit Europe
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Another interesting thing is that it will actually reach Earth on April 13, 2029 but it might safely fly by and then it will go close to the sun, turn around and then come back to Earth in 2068.
In 2029, it will still be close enough so that it can be seen with a naked eye, without needing binoculars or telescopes.
Some calculations estimate that if God of Chaos were to hit Earth, it will land somewhere in Europe.
Featured Image Courtesy: SpaceEra