Planetary defense experts use infamous asteroid Apophis to practice spotting dangerous space rocks

Earth’s most recent brush with asteroid danger was eight years ago, when a space rock the size of a six-story building came seemingly out of nowhere, injuring 1,200 people when it exploded over Chelyabinsk , Russia. Now, scientists are using this month’s flyby of the infamous asteroid Apophis to test their responses to potentially hazardous space rocks, honing the fine art of planetary defense. Planetary defense focuses on identifying asteroids and comets that hang out around Earth, mapping their precise paths and seeing how their orbits compare with Earth’s. If an orbital model shows that an asteroid and Earth are due to reach the same place at the same time, things get serious, particularly when the space rock is large. That’s the sort of scenario that ended the dinosaurs’ reign, after all. But planetary defense isn’t hopeless: if humans identify a dangerous asteroid long enough before impact, we could theoretically do something to divert it. Related: Scientists prepare for their last good look at asteroid Apophis before 2029 flyby Successfully preventing damage from an asteroid impact will depend on spotting the threat in time, which takes practice. But although scientists have identified more than 25,000 near-Earth asteroids to date, the… Read full this story

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