Duck: Apophis Could Hit Earth

And more bad news - apparently it won't hit in time to get you out of Christmas shopping this year, either.

In Egyptian myth, Apophis was the ancient spirit of evil and destruction, a demon that was determined to plunge the world into eternal darkness.

A fitting name, astronomers reasoned, for a menace now hurtling towards Earth from outerspace. Scientists are monitoring the progress of a 390-metre wide asteroid discovered last year that is potentially on a collision course with the planet, and are imploring governments to decide on a strategy for dealing with it.

Nasa has estimated that an impact from Apophis, which has an outside chance of hitting the Earth in 2036, would release more than 100,000 times the energy released 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.

And, scientists insist, there is actually very little time left to decide. more here

Apophis

Comments

[scubajap]

Shades of Armegeddon!!
So Dan, will you be one of the brave volunteers to go and deal with this earth-threatening menace?

[callmeBetty]

Awww crap. And my mortgage won't be paid off until 2032.

[jkatl]

Could this be the secret mission somebody we all love is working on? Looks like she's got about thirty years to figure out a way to steer that sucker!