{"id":515,"date":"2025-07-07T19:08:34","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T19:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.sciencepicker.com\/?p=515"},"modified":"2025-07-07T19:08:34","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T19:08:34","slug":"the-space-rock-that-created-panic-apophis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/the-space-rock-that-created-panic-apophis\/","title":{"rendered":"The space rock that created panic \u2013 Apophis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Earth\nhas experienced many close calls with asteroids from space throughout its\n4.5-billion-years history. Moon was also created by one huge collision. Many\nother objects also joined our planet, causing extensive disruption. Just ask\nthe dinosaurs, whose demise came suddenly 65 million years ago by a space rock\na few hundred meters across. The investigators are on the lookout for incoming\nintruders as it could happen again. There are regular investigations for\nobjects that might come too close to our planet\u2019s orbit and could create mass\ndisruption if they hit.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apophis:\nThe Earth-orbit-crossing Asteroid<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The planetary scientists, in 2004,\nidentified an asteroid<\/strong> that appeared to be on impact route towards the\nEarth within a few decades. Considering, there is no way to divert incoming asteroids<\/strong>\nyet, the discovery was a warning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were three discoverers, Roy A. Tucker, David Tholen, and Fabrizio Bernardi<\/strong>. All three discovers used Kitt Peak Observatory (KPO) to find the rock<\/strong>, and once they authenticated its existence, assigned a temporary number to it \u2013 2004 MN4.<\/strong> But later on, the rock<\/strong> was given a permanent asteroid<\/strong> number of 99942<\/strong> and they recommended it be named Apophis<\/strong> after a villain in the show “Stargate\u201d. After the discovery of Apophis,<\/strong> a lot of calculations were performed, based on orbital dynamics. The calculations showed that it is very possible that this small bit of spacerock<\/strong> would be directed considerately at Earth. No one was sure whether it would hit the Earth or not, but it looked clear that Apophis<\/strong> would pass through a gravitational keyhole near Earth that would divert its orbit just enough that the spacerock<\/strong> would conflict with the planer in 2036. This investigation was not less than a scary prospect and people began observing the orbit of Apophis<\/strong> very closely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Source: Pixabay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Missions\nto Apophis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After this approaching miss, a\nnumber of groups at NASA, ESA, and different space<\/strong> research\nestablishments began looking at chances to divert and study this asteroid<\/strong>.\nThere are various ways to modify an asteroid’s<\/strong> path, given the right\ntime and technology. It came out of research that attaching rockets<\/strong> or\nmissiles to smoothly push the Apophis<\/strong> slightly off its path would work.\nAlthough scientists following this mission necessitate being very careful not\nto divert it into a more serious orbit. Another idea that appeared out of the\ninvestigation is to use a gravitation tractor to orbit a spacecraft<\/strong>\naround the asteroid<\/strong> and use the common gravitational pull to improve the\nApophis\u2019<\/strong> trajectory. As for now, no specific deputations are underway,\nbut as more asteroids<\/strong> are seen, such a technological solution may get\nbuilt to prevent future devastation. There are roughly 1,500 known NEOs\norbiting out there in the dark, and there could be many more. So for now, we\ndon’t have to worry about Apophis<\/strong> making a direct hit on our planet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earth has experienced many close calls with asteroids from space throughout its 4.5-billion-years history. Moon was also created by one huge collision. Many other objects also joined our planet, causing extensive disruption. Just ask the dinosaurs, whose demise came suddenly 65 million years ago by a space rock a few hundred meters across. The investigators […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":835,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-space-and-astronomy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/60"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":836,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515\/revisions\/836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}