Authored by Mac Slavo,
NASA is already beginning preparations for the arrival of the asteroid called “The god of Chaos.” The asteroid is said to be approaching Earth and will come close to our planet in 2029.
The asteroid’s official name is 99942 Apophis. It is a 1,110-foot-wide asteroid named after the Egyptian god of chaos. It will fly as close to the Earth as some of the orbiting spacecraft panicking scientists.
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.
The asteroid will be visible to the naked eye and will look like a moving star point of light, according to NASA. It will pass over the United States in the early evening, according to WUSA 9. 99942 Apophis was discovered in 2004 and, after tracking it for 15 years, scientists say the asteroid has a 1 in 100,000 chance of striking Earth decades in the future. But in the fairly distant future: after 2060, Newsweek reported.
Asteroid preparation has become quite a hobby for NASA.
NASA Prepares For “Asteroid APOCALYPSE” With “Planetary Defense” Simulation
NASA is going to be using a simulation of an “asteroid apocalypse” in order to help the space agency prepare for the cataclysmic event. And they are taking it seriously, as disaster planners from FEMA will join NASA for a dress rehearsal of doomsday.
International partners, including the European Space Agency (ESA), will also be a part of the simulation. The drill is said to be a “tabletop exercise” that will simulate just how a planetary asteroid emergency would play out in real time. Although an emergency on this scale has never happened, and factors such as the location of impact will have a massive effect on the response to such a globally catastrophic event.
According to the Metro UK, disaster planners from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will join with NASA to hold a “make-believe apocalypse” intended to “inform involved players of important aspects of a possible disaster and identify issues for accomplishing a successful response.” The scenario will begin with the fictional premise that on March 26, astronomers “discovered” a near-Earth object (a comet or asteroid which comes within 30 million miles of Earth and one they consider potentially hazardous to Earth), NASA wrote.