Hitting the earth in '2036'

Hitting the earth in '2036'

Apophasis, a 1000 foots wide asteroid will pass earth on 13th April 2029, coming as close as some of our own scientists. It will be thrown off course by the earth’s gravity and, if we are very un lucky, it could swing back and hit us.

It is almost certain that the asteroids which are close encounter with the earth will change its orbit. If it pass through a certain keyhole of the space only 600 meters wide, it will be deflected onto a path that will send it crashing onto the planet on its next pass on Sunday, April 13, 2036.

Scientists have estimated that it has one chance in about 6,250 of hitting the earth. Such an impact would yield one of the greatest natural disasters occurring in the human life history. The impact would create a blast that the largest atomic or nuclear weapon which is thousand times much more powerful. This will kill millions of people if the impact occurred near a populated area or create a enormous Tsunami if the impact happened in the oceans.

NASA has estimated that an impact from Apophasis, which has an outside chance of hitting the earth in 2036, would release more than 100,000 times the energy release in the nuclear blast over Hiroshima. Thousands of square kilometres would be directly affected by the blast but the whole of the earth would see the effects of the dust released into the atmosphere.

Scientists are monitoring the progress of this asteroid discovered in June 2004 that is potentially on a collision course with the planet and are imploring governments to decides on a strategy for dealing with it.

And, scientists insists, there is actually very little time left to decide. At a recent meeting of experts in near earth objects [NEO’s] in London, scientists said it could take decades to design, test and build the required technology to deflect the asteroid.