Apophalypse No

Apophalypse No

I know you were all worried, having just narrowly avoided two recent apocalypses. Earlier this month (January 2013 for anyone reading this article late) I reported on an asteroid collision in This Article

Back in 2004 a Near Earth Asteroid named Apophis, for Apep the Egyptian god of darkness and chaos, was found to be on course for a pass between the Earth and the Moon in 2029. The effect of this pass, depending upon where its course might carry it, could have been a predicted catastrophic collision with the Earth in 2036 somewhere along this path:

Astrophysicists were waiting for Apophis to make an appearance this month to revise its course. Among the new information was the fact that Apophis was larger than previously calculated, which while that would make it potentially more dangerous also alters its orbit.

“Radar data we have collected over the past couple of weeks have completely excluded any chance of impact in 2036. Furthermore, we can now precisely predict its trajectory decades into the future,” Marina Brozovic of the Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory told the BBC Stargazing Live programme.

Provided it does not bump into anything else out there we have not seen yet. Until that happens,
There will be no Apophalypse.

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Henry Paterson
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