Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (99942) Apophis close encounter: online observations – 6 Mar. 2021.

By far the most famous potentially hazardous asteroid, (99942) Apophis will have a relatively close approach to Earth next 6 Mar. While waiting for its record-setting 2029 fly-by, we will share this upcoming opportunity with you, so join us and see it live from the comfort of your home.

Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (99942) Apophis: poster of the event.

With no doubts, the most famous potentially hazardous asteroid known to date is (99942) Apophis. Discovered in 2004, it showed a very interesting orbit, bringing it very close to our planet. On Apr. 2029, it will reach a minimum distance from our planet of about 30.000 km and it will have further interesting close approaches in 2036 and 2068. Its diameter is estimated around 350 meters.

Apophis has been and still is “used” as part of several catastrophic theories, which really do not have any reason to be. For us, it is just a very interesting rock and will offer a memorable show in 2029, when it will be visible by naked eye (!). Recently, new studies addressed the impact risk for the 2068 fly-by, reducing the already extremely small impact probability (which will likely go to zero once future data will help computing that scenario).

While waiting for those still remote dates, the Virtual Telescope offers you the opportunity to see Apophis now, while at about 16 millions of km from us. Needless to say, no risks of collision, it is a huge distance.

We will show Apophis live, online: the feed will start on 06. March 2021, at 00:00 UTC.

To join, you just need to enter, at the date and time above, our webTV page here!

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