Asteroid Apophis Worries Russian Astronomers as 2029 Approaches

A Russian Academy of Sciences’ Main Astronomical Observatory press secretary indicated the past weekend that asteroid Apophis will pass "ten times closer than the distance between the Earth and the Moon" in 2029.

“Obviously, the 600-meter boulder will do nothing good, especially as it is planned to position telecom satellite platforms on the geo-stationary orbit by that time. It is now impossible to calculate the prospective orbit of the asteroid right now," Sergei Smirnov told Russian media outlet Itar-Tass.

“Apophis is expected to come close in 2012 as well, and then its orbit of 2029 will be calculated more precisely. We need to know the asteroid’s trajectory with the precision of tens of meters in order to say for sure whether it may hit the Earth or not,” he said.

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