Skip to main content

Good news: The Earth won’t be impacted by a 1,100-foot-long asteroid after all

Animation of Asteroid Apophis’ 2029 Close Approach with Earth

A huge asteroid that gained notoriety due to its potential to impact the planet in 2068 won’t strike us after all, new data shows.

Recommended Videos

Asteroid 99942 Apophis was discovered in 2004 and was thought to be one of the most potentially dangerous asteroids, given its size of around 1,100 feet across and how close its orbit takes it to Earth. It is set to pass nearby Earth in 2029 and again in 2036, and it was thought that it could even impact the planet on its swingby in 2068.

You can breathe a sigh of relief though, as new data from asteroid tracking shows that this big chunk of rock won’t come smashing into us after all.

“A 2068 impact is not in the realm of possibility anymore, and our calculations don’t show any impact risk for at least the next 100 years,” said Davide Farnocchia of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) in a statement. “With the support of recent optical observations and additional radar observations, the uncertainty in Apophis’ orbit has collapsed from hundreds of kilometers to just a handful of kilometers when projected to 2029. This greatly improved knowledge of its position in 2029 provides more certainty of its future motion, so we can now remove Apophis from the risk list.”

To pin down the asteroid’s orbit more exactly, researchers observed it using a huge radio antenna which is part of NASA’s Deep Space Network, which it uses to communicate with spacecraft exploring the solar system and beyond. This powerful antenna along with other tools like the Green Bank Telescope enabled them to observe the asteroid’s movements and therefore to predict how close it will come in the future.

Not only will we stay safe from this object, but its close orbit provides an opportunity to study it in greater detail and to learn about its composition and whether it holds and clues to the state of the early solar system.

“Although Apophis made a recent close approach with Earth, it was still nearly 10.6 million miles [17 million kilometers] away. Even so, we were able to acquire incredibly precise information about its distance to an accuracy of about 150 meters [490 feet],” said JPL scientist Marina Brozovic, who led the radar campaign. “This campaign not only helped us rule out any impact risk, it set us up for a wonderful science opportunity.”

Georgina Torbet
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
NASA asteroid crash left a comet-like trail 6,000 miles long
The trail from the Dimorphos asteroid after NASA deliberately crashed a spacecraft into it.

As we await news on whether NASA has been successful in changing the course of an asteroid by crashing a spacecraft into it, it's emerged that the collision caused a huge debris trail around 6,000 miles (10,000 kilometers) long.

A remarkable image captured by the SOAR (Southern Astrophysical Research) telescope in Chile two days after the September 26 impact shows the trail from the Dimorphos asteroid as a white streak blazing through the blackness of space millions of miles from Earth.

Read more
DART asteroid impact imaged by Webb and Hubble space telescopes
Illustration of NASA’s DART spacecraft and the Italian Space Agency’s (ASI) LICIACube prior to impact at the Didymos binary system.

Earlier this week NASA successfully crashed its DART spacecraft into an asteroid around seven million miles from Earth.

The mission was a test to see if the force of such an impact can alter the course of an asteroid’s flight. If it can -- and we’re waiting for the results to come in -- then we can use the technology for planetary defense if we ever spot a hazardous asteroid heading straight for Earth.

Read more
Good news: Threatening asteroid won’t impact Earth in 2052
An artist's impression of an asteroid approaching Earth

This week saw Asteroid Day, the yearly event about the risks to Earth of asteroid impacts, but the European Space Agency marked the event with some good news: The asteroid 2021 QM1, listed as one of the most threatening to our planet, won't hit Earth after all. First observed last year, it was thought that the asteroid could strike the planet in April 2052, but recent analysis shows that it will pass us safely by.

ESA counts down to Asteroid Day with news on riskiest asteroid

Read more