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Science

Asteroid Named After Evil God of Darkness to Pass by Earth This Week

Jan. 7, 2013 11:59pm
Apophis Asteroid to Pass by Earth Wednesday

(Image: Shutterstock.com)

It seems like almost every week there’s some news about an asteroid making a close pass by Earth or about the research scientists are conducting to prevent an Armageddon-like impact of an asteroid, like the recent idea to send it into orbit around the moon.

This story combines both as the Apophis asteroid — named after the Egyptian god of darkness and destruction — will pass Earth at a relatively close distance on Wednesday. During this event, researchers will take in various observations in an effort to be better predict if it will ever be on a more targeted course toward Earth in the future.

You might remember some previous headlines made by Apophis. It’s famous for the predictions that have been made about when and how likely it would be to hit Earth (or not). Here’s more on that from NASA:

Upon its discovery in 2004, Apophis was briefly estimated to have a 2.7% chance of impacting the Earth in 2029. Additional measurements later showed there was no impact risk at that time from the 210-330 meter (690-1080 foot) diameter object, identified spectroscopically as an Sq type similar to LL chondritic meteorites. However, there will be a historically close approach to the Earth, estimated to be a 1 in 800 year event (on average, for an object of that size).

While trajectory knowledge was substantially corrected by the Arecibo data, a small estimated chance of impact (less than 1 in 45,000 using standard dynamical models) remained for April 13, 2036.

Apophis will pass at 14.5 million kilometres above Earth’s surface Wednesday. To put this into perspective the moon is 384,403 kilometers away. So, it’s not exactly a close scrape but it’s close enough for astronomers to gather data they hadn’t been able to before. The Guardian has more on this front:

Wednesday 9 January will afford astronomers the rare opportunity to bring a battery of telescopes to bear: from optical telescopes to radio telescopes to the European Space Agency’s Infrared Space Observatory Herschel. Two of the biggest unknowns that remain to be established are the asteroid’s mass and the way it is spinning. Both of these affect the asteroid’s orbit and without them, precise calculations cannot be made.

Another unknown is the way sunlight affects the asteroid’s orbit, either through heating the asteroid or the pressure of sunlight itself. Russia has announced tentative plans to land a tracking beacon on Apophis sometime after 2020, so that its orbit can be much more precisely followed from Earth.

Discovery News put into perspective why keeping close tabs on Apophis is important to astronomers. It described the asteroid as more than three football fields in length with power of 100,000 Hiroshima-size atomic bombs. It stated that a direct hit would be enough to kill 10 million people.

Still, if you consider the distance between Earth and Apophis when it will pass on Jan. 9 small potatoes, perhaps you’ll be more interested in another asteroid — 2012 DA14 — which although smaller than will come within 34,000 kilometers in February, according to the Huffington Post.

Featured image via Shutterstock.com. 

(H/T: The Daily Beast)

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Comments (84)

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  • DZ-015
    Posted on January 8, 2013 at 6:07am

    Head for the hills, the Apophisalypse is coming!

    Report this comment

    DZ-015  
    • tonypro
      Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:49pm

      Don’t sweat it !!!!

      I’m sure we created this thing with global warming, I mean climate change!!!

      Or was it the guns that caused it,

      Orrrr, it could just be that Al Gore created it…..

      We may never know. LMAO

      Report this comment

       
  • ArmedAndReallyPissed
    Posted on January 8, 2013 at 6:06am

    Science

    Asteroid Named After Evil God of Darkness to Pass by Earth This Week……………………………….

    We’re sorry…………BHO666 is already taken.

    Report this comment

    ArmedAndReallyPissed  
  • country_hick
    Posted on January 8, 2013 at 5:01am

    Woohoo! 6.5LD… Feb 15, 2012DA14 will pass 0.09LD from the Green Hills of Earth. THAT 57 meter rock might be a little more worrying!

    Report this comment

    country_hick  
  • Excomunicatedmarine
    Posted on January 8, 2013 at 4:18am

    Wonder how much the gravitational pull will change the trajectory….could it land on the big white house on Penn ave ?

    Report this comment

    Excomunicatedmarine  
    • SUNTZU
      Posted on January 8, 2013 at 11:44pm

      NO
      I live in a white house on Penn ave.
      Nevermind different city.

      Report this comment

      SUNTZU  
  • Too_Far_Gone
    Posted on January 8, 2013 at 3:03am

    Preparation H ?

    Report this comment

    Too_Far_Gone  
  • DEFCON4
    Posted on January 8, 2013 at 2:45am

    Now, hold-on there, there’s no recollection of this ‘event’ in my Mayan calender….
    Dang-thing expired, 2 weeks a go…..
    Remember-Y’2K ???
    ‘Mulder’, anyone, .for the love *asteroids*,, everywhere…
    “Apophis”, well not in my ‘post’….

    Report this comment

    DEFCON4  
    • RJJinGadsden
      Posted on January 8, 2013 at 6:37am

      DEFCON4, Y2K! I remember that all too well. Worked with people who were ready to live in fallout shelters or something similar. They were a bunch of Peter Griffins as far as I was concerned.

      Report this comment

      RJJinGadsden  
    • OniKaze
      Posted on January 8, 2013 at 4:13pm

      That reminds me… on Y2K right at midnight I “dis-appeared” from my New Years Party and made my way to the basement where my circuit breaker was, and when I was hearing the countdown, right when they said “One” I killed power to my house… HAHAHA

      I lived out in the countryside at the time, so you could not just walk out the door and see the neighbors lights on… It really freaked out MOST of my guests…

      Classic moment.. No New Years will EVER compare to that one… :-)

      Report this comment

      OniKaze  
  • AZgirl9000
    Posted on January 8, 2013 at 2:38am

    I am soooooo scared. This time it’s passing by a little over 1/3 the distance between the orbits of Earth and Venus. Maybe we can get Biden to meet with the Venusians about this–his speeches seem to get interrupted by messages from them pretty regularly.

    Report this comment

    AZgirl9000  
  • LeadNotFollow
    Posted on January 8, 2013 at 2:33am

    Where’s Leeloo the “Fifth Element”, when we need her?

    Report this comment

    LeadNotFollow  
  • Rayblue
    Posted on January 8, 2013 at 2:29am

    I had an asteroid removed once.
    Hurt like heck.

    Report this comment

    Rayblue  
    • Rayblue
      Posted on January 8, 2013 at 2:49am

      I named it after my ex.
      Yog. The giant telepathic squid worm hog dog rat spider from below.

      Report this comment

      Rayblue  
    • lonwarner2
      Posted on January 8, 2013 at 7:28am

      You had one too???

      Report this comment

      lonwarner2  
    • Phreqguru
      Posted on January 8, 2013 at 11:54am

      I can relate to one of those…glad that removal is over and done…but still paying through the nose for that missadventure. “The Soul of a Woman Was Created Below”

      Report this comment

      Phreqguru  
  • The_Cabrito_Goat
    Posted on January 8, 2013 at 1:21am

    Who, Kali?

    Report this comment

    The_Cabrito_Goat  
  • marine249
    Posted on January 8, 2013 at 1:18am

    without looking is its name obammer?

    Report this comment

    marine249  
  • Female
    Posted on January 8, 2013 at 1:08am

    As long as it isn’t named wormwood.

    “The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many died from the water, because it was made bitter.” (Revelation 8:10–11

    Then, there is that other one going by around Feb 15, 2012
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvQrwJ5DMgg

    “And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with … into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;” Revelation 8:8 KJV …

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttloSmZ9PlU

    Near Earth Objects http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-Earth_object

    Sleep well or good morning!?!

    Report this comment

    Female  
    • OniKaze
      Posted on January 8, 2013 at 4:18pm

      Ahh.. You bible thumpers look for ANY reason to spout non-sense scriptures…

      Educate yourself, Form an opinion (of your own), Keep God in your heart, but STOP relying on some book written by primitive men over 1000 years ago to tell you what to think…

      Use the brain God gave you, and stop relying on the words of men to guide your life…

      Report this comment

      OniKaze  
  • freelancer91
    Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:57am

    Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn…so they say…

    Report this comment

    freelancer91  
  • freelancer91
    Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:52am

    If you are gonna name an asteroid after an Evil God of Darkness, don’t mess around with it. Everyone knows Cthulhu takes that title…

    Report this comment

    freelancer91  
    • John655
      Posted on January 8, 2013 at 1:08am

      Yea but everyone knows it will only cast a shadow over Innsmouth.

      Report this comment

      John655  
  • bonesiii
    Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:46am

    It seems to me that the obvious way to stop an asteroid collision would be to hook a device to it with its own rockets, and simply rocket it off course. If we’re really serious about this, that’s the way to go.

    Yes, it would be expensive, but ya gotta start sometime… And cost really shouldn’t be a factor considering the stakes. Not that it’s likely to be needed anytime soon… but same answer. :P

    Report this comment

    bonesiii  
    • Melika
      Posted on January 8, 2013 at 7:18am

      If you’re going to do that, you’ll also need to pay union wages to the oil drill guys you find and then have to train to become astronauts, so the expense goes up exponentially. Of course, the awesome training montage music and embarrassing singing to the fiance when leaving might just make the expense worth it.

      Report this comment

      Melika  
    • Dismayed Veteran
      Posted on January 8, 2013 at 3:02pm

      We can use Bruce and the boys. They are trained.

      Report this comment

      Dismayed Veteran  
  • Psychosis
    Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:35am

    send obay and moochelle there on vacation /////

    they can get off when it comes back

    Report this comment

    Psychosis  
  • avgconservative
    Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:30am

    $16 trillion dollars is an acceptable debt.

    14.5 million kilometres above Earth’s surface is an acceptable distance.

    To bring our debt into perspective, if the numbers were reversed, the meteor would pass by outside of our galaxy… way outside our galaxy… say further than our finest telescopes can see, even outside the known universe.

    Meanwhile if we had a $14.5 million dollar debt, we would be debt free by taxing the rich (anyone making over $1 million) $14,000… roughly.

    Report this comment

    avgconservative  
    • The-Monk
      Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:34am

      Hi Avgconservative,

      Very nice analogy. Thanks. : )

      Report this comment

      The-Monk  
    • bonesiii
      Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:55am

      This IS a brilliant analogy but I felt like checking the math… and unless I’m doing it wrong, which I probably am ‘cuz it’s math, it doesn’t actually fit. :P

      A quick google search says 1 lightyear = 9.4605284 × 10 to the 12th power kilometers. That’s about 9 trillion. 16 trillion would be close to two lightyears. The nearest star besides ours is four. So it would be well within our galaxy.

      Still, I’ll take an asteroid pass of two lightyears away compared to this aaaaaany day, and how about eliminating that debt entirely? lol

      Report this comment

      bonesiii  
    • avgconservative
      Posted on January 9, 2013 at 10:47am

      It was just fun to type… don’t count on the accuracy. But, thanks for checking.

      Report this comment

      avgconservative  
  • The-Monk
    Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:27am

    OK… what’s going on?

    Dang…. my second post got attached to another one.

    Oh well….. third times the charm?

    Report this comment

    The-Monk  
  • Advection
    Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:27am

    What is frightening is the fact that they have discovered asteroids that passed between the Earth and Moon, and they discovered them just a few days before they passed by.

    Report this comment

    Advection  
    • 9111315
      Posted on January 8, 2013 at 1:51am

      Many of these become shooting stars.

      . . . . we need to register and then ban all asteroids.

      Report this comment

      9111315  
  • lel2007
    Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:25am

    We’ve already got the ‘Evil God of Darkness’ in the White House for at least the next four years, why worry about a dirty clump of ice passing by.

    Report this comment

    lel2007  
    • YAHSHUARULES
      Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:34am

      Do you know who the Fabians (with logo of wolf in sheep’s clothing); SDS, Frankfurt School and Willi Munzenberg, Herbert Markusa and Franz Noima; John Dewey, Antonio Gramsci, Mattechine Society, Saul Alinski (who dedicated his book which Obama taught for years in Chicago “Rules for Radicals” to Lucifer) was a disciple of Gramsci used to train at the rifle range with Leon Despres preparing for the revolution to take down America, later became a mentor to Obama and.Committees of Correspondence are? Connect all the dots that allowed Obama to waltz into the White House..
      https://vimeo.com/52009124

      All part of the Agenda to create an America so corrupt it stinks; use public policy to subvert America from inside, infiltrate and influence our culture driving us in a direction designed to destroy us. . No conspiracy – just verifiable facts! If you don’t know all this you need to find out!

      This is the most comprehensive, best movie I have seen pulling all this together. I have watched it 12X to absorb all that is in it …give it 5 minutes and you won’t be able to walk away
      Watch it. Share it. Arrange a showing in church, groups, clubs, with friends or family. Everyone who loves America needs to see this movie,
      It is free on line for the moment
      https://vimeo.com/52009124
      If America goes down, the free world will go down with it and it will be finished for a very, very long time…

      Report this comment

      YAHSHUARULES  
    • missdagnytaggart
      Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:40am

      bahahaha

      Report this comment

      missdagnytaggart  
    • bonesiii
      Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:58am

      I think it’s a rock. Asteroid. You’re thinking of a comet. Either would hurt lol.

      Report this comment

      bonesiii  
  • Advection
    Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:22am

    I half expected it to be named after Obama. Well, he is the…oh, never mind.

    Report this comment

    Advection  
  • RJJinGadsden
    Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:14am

    Apophis. Hmmm, interesting nick name for SENDTHEMETEORS.

    Report this comment

    RJJinGadsden  
  • DeniseR55
    Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:13am

    relatively close distance… does that make sense?

    Report this comment

    DeniseR55  
  • DeniseR55
    Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:10am

    Joking

    Report this comment

    DeniseR55  
  • DeniseR55
    Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:09am

    Wow, close……..

    Report this comment

    DeniseR55  
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