NASA has ruled out the speculation about the asteroid Apophis hitting the earth in 2036. Scientists have concluded the facts from the information obtained by its telescope in 2011 and 2012.
According to NASA statements, data discovered during a search of old astronomical images provided additional information required ruling out the 2029 impact scenario, but a remote possibility of one in 2036 remained.
Discovered in 2004, the asteroid - as big as three-and-a-half soccer fields - caught the immediate attention of space scientists and the media when initial calculations of its orbit indicated a 2.7 percent possibility of an earth impact during a close flyby in 2029.
Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, said "With new data provided by the Magdalena Ridge (New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology) and the Pan-STARRS (University of Hawaii) optical observatories along with very recent data from the Goldstone Solar System Radar, we have effectively ruled out the possibility of an earth impact by Apophis in 2036."
He said that the impact odds as they stand now are less than one in a million, which makes us comfortable saying we can effectively rule out an earth impact in 2036. Our interest in asteroid Apophis will essentially be scientific.
It is noted that, according to some reports, on April 13, 2036, a flyby of Apophis will become the closest flyby of an asteroid of its size when it comes no closer than 31,300 km to the earths surface.
Yeomans said that but much sooner a closer approach by a lesser-known asteroid is going to occur in the middle of next month when a 40-metre asteroid, 2012 DA14, flies safely past the earth's surface at about 17,200 miles.
(With inputs from IANS)
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