Astronomers: "Apophis" will not hit Earth

Astronomers ruled out "a few years ago" the possibility of a dangerous asteroid called "Apophis" colliding with Earth during its passage near it or as a result of its collision with another asteroid that changed its original path.

Now, astronomers Paul Weigert of Western University and Ben Hiatt of the University of Waterloo in Canada have studied the orbits of more than 1.3 million known asteroids in the inner solar system and have reached a firm conclusion: No asteroid will collide with Apophis within a few years. Which negates the possibility of it colliding with the Earth.

“Given how close Apophis is to Earth, there is a potential risk that deviating from its current path could bring it closer to colliding with our planet,” Hiatt says. “In theory, another asteroid colliding with Apophis could deflect it, which motivates us to study this scenario.”

Apophis may pass near another asteroid called Xanthos in December 2026, at a distance of 10,000 km.

“We calculated the trajectories of all known asteroids using detailed computer simulations of our solar system, and assessed the possibility of such an unlikely event occurring,” says Weigert. “Fortunately, such collisions are not expected to occur.”

It is worth noting that scientists discovered " Apophis " in 2004, and it was considered a potential threat. Early projections also indicated that there was a very worrying 2.7% chance of colliding with Earth in 2029.

But scientists quickly ruled out this possibility, even though Apophis approaches Earth every eight years.

Publish the research on the arXiv preprint server.