Experts from the All-Russian Research Institute for Civil Defense and Emergencies (VNII GOChS, part of the Ministry of Emergencies) warned that in the spring of 2029 the asteroid Apophis would approach the Earth at a dangerous distance. It has a diameter of almost 400 m and weighs about 30 tons.
The object will fly up to the Earth at the distance at which geostationary satellites are located in orbit. The closest approach to our planet will occur on April 13.
VNII GOChS predicts that the strength of an earthquake within a radius of 10 kilometers from the place of the asteroid's fall can reach 6.5 points on the Richter scale, and the wind speed will be at least 790 meters per second.
Apophis will pass approximately 37.6 thousand km from the Earth. It could change its orbit so that the next time it approaches the Earth in 2036, it will collide with it, and this will lead to the transformation into a desert of an area the size of France, scientists said.
In 2012, the American company Foundation B612 already reported about Apophis. She raised funds for a space telescope that will track the location of asteroids in the solar system.
In 2009, the leadership of Roskosmos was preparing to discuss a project to prevent a large asteroid from falling to Earth, said the head of the space agency Anatoly Perminov: “One scientist recently reported to me an interesting thing that the trajectory of its flight is always approaching the Earth. It is much larger, almost three times the size of the Tunguska meteorite. He calculated that somewhere in the 2030s he would definitely hit the Earth. "
On November 24, NASA and SpaceX launched the world's first DART planetary defense test mission. The device will try to change the orbit of the 160-meter asteroid Dimorf, which is part of the binary system (65803) Didyme from the Apollo family and revolves around the 750-meter main body. This system does not pose a threat to the Earth.
DART will hit its target on September 26, 2022. The ram experiment is scheduled for October 2, 2022. In 2027, the European station Hera will reach Dimorph, which will investigate the system in detail and additionally confirm the change in orbit.
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