Yet another doomsday for us to look forward to (it gets boring looking back at doomsdays from the past that have failed to come to pass). This time it is a 325 m wide asteroid – named Apophis (Apep) after the Egyptian God of darkenss and chaos – which could crash into the Earth on 13th April 2036 (a Sunday).
My own hypothesis is that if we can increase the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to around 1200 ppm, a collision could be avoided. All I need is some funding (just a few million would do) and I’m sure I could develop a suitable mathematical model to “prove” this. Maybe Greenpeace and WWF could contribute. After all it would save so many species on Earth – not to mention humans.
Daily Mail: The European Space Agency’s orbiting telescope has captured striking new images of the huge ‘Doomsday’ asteroid Apophis that could smash into Earth in 2036 – revealing it is larger than previously thought.
Long billed as a potential cause of an Extinction Level Event (ELE) for humanity, today ESA officials announced that its Herschel Space Observatory discovered that the asteroid is 1,066 feet wide, 20 percent larger than the previous estimate of 885 feet.
Whizzing past Earth at the relatively close distance of nine million miles tonight, Apophis is being closely tracked because of a 2004 study that predicted the rock has a 2.7 percent chance of hitting Earth in April 2029, which was later revised to 2036.
BBC: The large rocky mass was first discovered in 2004. At the time, it raised alarm when scientists calculated that it had a one-in-45,000 chance of smashing into the Earth in 2029. Later revisions, lifted this threat; instead on the Friday 13 April 2029, it will make a close pass at a distance of about 30,000km. However, astronomers say there is still a one-in-200,000 chance that it could strike Earth in 2036.
Professor Alan Fitzsimmons, an astronomer at Queen’s University Belfast, UK, said: “In 2029, it will pass so close to us that Earth’s gravity will change its orbit. Most of the potential orbits it will end up on will mean we are safe for the next 100 years. But there is a small region of space – something we call a keyhole – and if it passes through that keyhole in 2029, it will come back and hit us on 13 April in 2036.”
If this happened, it would strike the Earth with 100 times the energy in our largest nuclear bombs, said Prof Fitzsimmons.
Tags: 99942 Apophis, Apophis, Doomsday, European Space Agency, Extinction event
The k2p blog 
January 10, 2013 at 11:06 pm
The Gruniad says Fri 13/4/2029. Odds are 40:1 against. The best bet possible, if I were to be around then.
Jack.
January 10, 2013 at 11:39 pm
Friday, Apri 13th occurring in 2029 would be ever so much more appropriate. But the revised date of 13th April 2036 – unfortunately – falls on a Sunday. Of course a Sunday could be more appropriate for a Rapture or a Final Day of Judgement!