Will the world end in 2029?

Question

I heard on the news that an asteroid will hit the earth in either 2029 or 2036. I think the name of it is Apophis (cool name). Will it hit earth, and if it hits, will we all die?

Answer 1

I hear about the year 2036 too.

If the world wouldn't come to an end in 2012,than 2036 would be the famous world end year

Answer 2

I think it's about a 1 in 450 chance of happening.

Answer 3

(99942) Apophis will make quite a close pass to the Earth on April 13, 2029.  It will pass at about one tenth the distance to the Moon, or about 38,000 km.  It will not strike the Earth then, the present uncertainty in the predicted path on that date is around 1000 km.  The close pass will alter Apophis' orbit around the Sun in ways that depend on the precise path it takes in 2029.  Thus the future motion beyond 2029 becomes rapidly less predictable.  By 2036 the uncertainty grows to around 30 million km and the object could be nearly anywhere along its new orbital path around the Sun.  That orbit is predicted to cross the orbit of the Earth in 2036, the question is whether Apophis and the Earth will be in the same place at the same time.  At present Apophis is predicted to be something like 50 million km away from the crossing point at he time the Earth reaches it.  All of this goes back to the 2029 pass; if Apophis passes through the right "spot" (a region about 600 m long) at the right (wrong?) time it will end up on the 2036 collision course.  In all likelihood, as we gather more data at the next good opportunity in 2012 and 2013 and the following decade, the uncertainty region will continue to shrink until the 600 m keyhole in 2029 falls outside it and we can then say unequivocally that Apophis will not impact the Earth in 2036.  At present a 2036 impact is a remote (1 in 45,000) possibility.

I guess another aspect is the fact that Apophis is about 270 meters in diameter, not a small object but not a dinosaur killer.  If it did strike the Earth it wouldn't cause global devastation of itself but could cause destruction on the scale of a whole country.  How our systems of government, economics and disaster relief would cope with that is something of an unknown quantity.

Answer 4

Just recently I asked a question about what was going to happen after the world doesn't end in 2012. Almost everyone said they were going to pick another date. Looks like they were right.

If the asteroid comes even remotely close to hitting Earth, which it probably won't, we can take care of it. So no, the world is not going to end in 2029. Could we stick with the 2012 theory for a while? I just got through writing my copy-paste answer and I'm too lazy to start another one for 2029. Keep this on the mum.

Answer 5

no one knows