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A 1,110-foot-wide asteroid named for the Egyptian god of chaos (and possibly a Stargate SG-1 character) will fly past Earth in 2029 within the distance of some orbiting spacecraft, according to reports.
The asteroid, 99942 Apophis, will come within 19,000 miles of Earth on April 13, a decade from now, but scientists at the Planetary Defense Conference are already preparing for the encounter, Newsweek reported. They plan to discuss the asteroid's effects on Earth's gravity, potential research opportunities and even how to deflect an incoming asteroid in a theoretical scenario.
https://www.foxnews.com/science/1110-foot-asteroid-to-pass-near-earth-in-2029
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Huge 'God of Chaos' Asteroid to Pass Near Earth in 2029
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Remember Darwin; building a better mousetrap merely results in smarter mice.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 06 2019, @04:40AM (10 children)
Considering we might have to deal with a real strike in the near future, this kind of thing gives everyone good opportunity to implement practical and timely procedures as well as getting skills to mitigate threats.
I'm of the conviction we really should have mitigation procedures standing by
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday May 06 2019, @04:53AM (9 children)
That's the point of DART [wikipedia.org]. The spacecraft will collide into the asteroid's moon, and that will alter the orbit of the primary, 65803 Didymos. This might not be the best technique possible, but it will be humanity's first attempt to alter an asteroid's trajectory.
Ultimately, all near-Earth asteroids should be redirected for ease of study and resource extraction. It would be nice if they could be put into semi-stable lunar orbit, or Earth orbit if we're feeling lucky.
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(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 06 2019, @08:37AM (8 children)
Lunar orbit? I wonder how much mass we could put into lunar orbit, before we destabilize the moon's own orbit. The moon is currently receding from earth, right? I suppose it could be a "good thing" to halt that recession, but not reverse it. It would probably take a lot of experimentation to get it "right". Not that we're in danger of being able to move that much mass in the near future.
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Monday May 06 2019, @08:56AM (7 children)
Even the largest asteroid, Ceres, is just 1.28% of the Moon's mass. The ones we will be able to move within the coming centuries are going to have no significant effect whatsoever. 99942 Apophis is estimated to be a bit less than 1 trillionth of the mass of the Moon (7.342×1022 kg / 6.1×1010 kg), and it's already much larger (370 meters) than what I would expect we would actually be redirecting into lunar orbit.
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(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 06 2019, @10:43AM
Well, within the coming decades, at least. Centuries may or may not be an exaggeration. Some damned fool may yet stumble over a nuclear reaction engine and another damned fool may well strap it to a spaceship, then strap that ship to some random asteroid that looks valuable. And, of course, our race of clever monkeys will do that monkey-see, monkey-do thing, bringing hundreds, or thousands of asteroids back into our little region of space. Better yet, automate it, so that we can just build cheap bots to go out and drag stuff back. Yet another story idea that I'll never write up, LOL!
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Monday May 06 2019, @05:31PM (5 children)
Why would you spend more energy getting it into lunar orbit rather than keeping it in a high earth orbit?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday May 06 2019, @05:43PM (2 children)
Anti-roid citizens and governments crying foul about potentially slamming a roid into Earth.
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(Score: 2) by isostatic on Monday May 06 2019, @11:10PM (1 child)
To get into lunar orbit you need to first get it into earth orbit
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday May 07 2019, @02:50AM
Shh, don't tell anybody.
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(Score: 4, Touché) by bob_super on Monday May 06 2019, @11:26PM (1 child)
> Why would you spend more energy getting it into lunar orbit rather than keeping it in a high earth orbit?
Getting it into lunar orbit requires a lot less delta-v, if you use lithobraking.
Not something you'd try with Earth orbit.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Tuesday May 07 2019, @05:27AM
Still ends up in earth orbit