Hold The Armageddon

Doesn’t it seem like we’re having to fight off an awful lot of species threatening problems nowadays? Admittedly, most of them of our own doing, but I’d argue that a massive asteroid crashing into our planet which is just over here innocently minding its own business isn’t really our fault. 

Thankfully, an asteroid that has long been on the radar of space observers as a potentially humanity destroying ‘crash hazard’ has been removed as a serious threat for at least another century, according to the experts. The asteroid named ‘99942 Apophis’ (rolls right off of the tongue, right?) was first discovered by American observers in 2004 and it was at one point thought to have been at genuine risk of colliding with Earth around the year 2029. The probability was at one point believed to have been as high as 2.7%, which might not seem like a huge number, but when you consider that the fate of life on Earth as we know it is potentially on the line, that number is a bit too close for comfort for my liking. But a NASA analysis quelled those fears last week, as Davide Farnocchia of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies assured the world that Apophis will be gliding right past us in 2029. Their estimates have the asteroid passing by at a distance of around 32,000 kilometres which (to put in context how terrifyingly close that is) is closer to Earth than most of the communication satellites that orbit our planet. The new information also ruled out any possibility of collision in 2036 and 2068 (the two other years previously hypothesised as potential collision points). 

Farnocchia remarked that the removal of Apophis from the agency‘s ‘risk list’ was a satisfying moment, as for many years the asteroid had been considered “the poster child for hazardous asteroids”. Excitingly, it is right now estimated that Apophis will be close enough to be visible to the naked eye on 13th April, 2029 for those on located on Earth’s Eastern Hemisphere (most of Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia and the Pacific) as it narrowly passes by our lucky planet. That’s like dodging a bullet and watching it whizz past your ear in real time! So rest easy folks, Doomsday is not yet upon us and, provided we’re able to fight off the myriad of other potential catastrophes facing us in the coming years, we’re safe for at least another century. Now let’s all gather around and watch Michael Bay’s asteroid exploding masterpiece Armageddon to celebrate (somebody cue the cheesy Aerosmith song right now!).