What will happen if asteroid-99942 (apophis ) hits us?

Question

what will happen?

Answer 1

It would be the equivalent of a large nuclear explosion. How much damage and loss of life would result would depend on where it hit.

Answer 2

2004 MN4 will NOT hit Earth.

"What if" scenarios are a waste of time.

If you haven't checked on the status of this asteroid in a few months, you may wish to do so. It is standard practice to set impact ratios high when an asteroid is discovered and then adjust the impact chance lower as more data on its orbital path is computed. The study of asteroids is not a haphazard science.

The devastation of any asteroid impact is based upon the size of the asteroid, its speed, composition, and whether it strikes a land mass or ocean.

The diameter of 2004 MN4 is roughly 270 meters.

Speed is about 31 km/s.

Artificial impact scenarios have it striking Russia or the Pacific or Atlantic oceans. A 75% odds of striking water.

A land strike would be the equivalent of 800 megatons of TNT. Enough to devastate thousands of square kilometers but not enough to initiate a global winter. An oceanic impact would most likely trigger a tsunami.

This is only theoretical. 2004 MN4 will not strike Earth in 2029 nor 2036 and any statements regarding impact damage potentials are presented as a statistical hypothetic only.

Answer 3

As of today, there is no chance for a 2029 impact, but there is still a 1 in 45,000 chance that it will impact in 2036.

As it passes through the atmosphere, it will be traveling so fast that the air in front of it will be greatly compressed, and hence, heated. This air will be so hot that it will actually produce radiation in the ultra-violet spectrum, and anyone within visual range of it will burn to death nearly instantly. (Seeing people in movies watching The Big One pass through the atmosphere, like in "Deep Impact", is just not a realistic representation of what would happen.) The good news is that will last only a few seconds- I'm not sure of what Apophis' relative velocity to Earth will be, but if it is 20,000 mph, then it will only take 18 seconds from atmospheric entry to impact- assuming a near vertical descent.

When it hits, of course there will be a large fireball and the associated over-pressure air blast. Some ejecta (blast fragments) will be blasted nearly into orbit. These chunks of rock will not only cause damage by smashing what they land on when they come back down, but will also be red-hot, so fires will erupt all across our planet for some time after the initial impact. This will happen even if it smashes into the deepest part of the ocean- 6 miles of water won't slow Apophis enough to make a difference, nor will it quench the fireball, nor keep fragmentation from flying out.

Atmospheric heating will certainly occur- not just from the initial blast, but also from all that hot ejecta falling back to the surface. This effect will be slight and temporary.

Dust will cloud the atmosphere, and some of the Sun's light will not penetrate deep enough into our atmosphere to keep the Earth's surface warm, and a slight global cooling will ensue. I don't know how long it will last, but it'd be several years at least, though as I said, it will be minor. (Mt. Pinatubo's ash had a measurable effect on global temperature after its eruption, but it was very slight, and Apophis will have considerable more energy than that of Pinbatubo's eruption.)



It won't be a big enough event to wipe out life on Earth. The human race will survive, but life will be tough going for a while.

Answer 4

thers only a 2.7 percent chance it will hit us in 2029.

Answer 5

if that happen earth will be distory