A huge and potentially dangerous asteroid Apophis approachs Earth in a few years, presumably, April 13, 2029, writes a Space.com portal with reference to scientists.
The heavenly body of 340 meters wide will be at a distance of just 31 thousand from our planet, it’s closer than the location of geostationary artificial satellites. The luminescence of the object will be so bright that it will be able to see about two billion people.
Asteroid will be visible in the southern hemisphere in the form of a star, which will sweep over Australia, the Indian Ocean and eventually through the equator over Africa.
Researchers previously believed that Apophis could face the Earth, even when they found out that there were no threats, they did not exclude that earthly gravity would lead to a collision, however, such an event of events is not confirmed by scientists.
“Apophis belongs to the category of potentially dangerous asteroids – asteroids whose orbits bring them to Earth now in the future centuries,” said Professor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge Richard Binsel.
Earlier, astronomers are lovers from different countries recorded the moment of the collision of Jupiter with an unknown object. The incident occurred on September 13, when astronomers followed the passage on the surface of the planet shadow of her satellite IO. At a certain point, the observers saw a bright outbreak.