Asteroid 99942 is the size of a US aircraft carrier at nearly 1,100 feet across but weighs an estimated 6,000 times a carrier at 672 million tons.
What is the asteroid’s name? Apophis.
Apophis: Danger Zone. ESA, CC BY-SA IGO 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/deed.en, via Wikimedia Commons
Astronomers Roy Tucker, David Tholen, and Fabrizio Bernardi, working at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Tucson, Arizona, discovered Apophis in 2004. Their discovery quickly verberated throughout the science community as this enormous object appeared to be on an impact course with Earth.
Fortunately, astronomers continued to track and refine these rough initial estimates, and soon reassessment of the impact brought good news as the orbit became clearer. The big asteroid would miss, for now.
However, the notorious asteroid will come close to Earth in what is termed a “danger zone” in 2029 and 2036.
Mars. The Red Planet. A second home for humanity?
Such asteroids are why we need to colonize Mars. Spaceship Earth may not be a viable home for us forever. We need an alternative for humanity to continue to thrive.
I’ll leave it to a 1996 article by Robert Zubrin to make the argument.
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