Anonymousabout 2 hours ago
Asteroid 99942 Apophis, a 370-meter rock once given a 2.7% chance of striking Earth, will pass just 31,600 kilometers above the surface on April 13, 2029 — closer than geostationary satellites and visible to the naked eye across Africa and Europe. While NASA has ruled out any impact for the next century, the flyby exposes critical gaps in planetary defense: roughly 14,000 Apophis-class near-Earth objects remain undetected, no binding international treaty governs deflection decisions, and the 2029 encounter will scramble Apophis's orbit in ways that current models cannot fully predict until spacecraft arrive to measure the aftermath.