Will the asteroid Apophis get to Earth?

For eight years scientists have been observing the celestial body, which is rapidly moving to the Earth's stern. It was first discovered from the Kitt Peak Observatory (Arizona) by astronomers David Jay Tholen, Roy Ey Tucker and Fabrizio Bernardi. The asteroid was assigned the code "2004MN4". Soon with the help of preliminary calculations it was found out that it has a radius of 320 meters, and on April 13, 2029, collides with the Earth and brings with it a deadly cataclysm. Therefore, a year after its discovery, in 2005, the meteorite was given a threatening name of the ancient god - Apophis.

According to the calculations of astronomers the probability of its collision with our planet is 3 to 100. As is clear, this is a rather small ratio. However, in the history of astronomy, there was no such heavenly body that would have such opportunities for collision with the Earth, like the asteroid Apophis. But opinions are divided, and some astronomers believe otherwise.

Like any other asteroid, Apophis moves around the Sun. On the flight of the entire orbit, he needs 323 days. The speed is 37 000 km / h. Weight - 50 million tons. The radius is 320 m. The asteroid Apophis, whose photo was already represented by NASA, has a surface covered with small meteorites.

In the age of computer technology, the accuracy of astronomical calculations was brought almost to the ideal, and scientists have found everything, right up to the point where the asteroid Apophis will fall. 2012, however, brought a lot of contradictions in these very forecasts. Some scientists claimed that it would collide with the Earth in 2029 in the west of North America, others - that in 2068 and in the territory of the Russian Federation.

But no matter how much the scientists argue, one thing is certain. If the asteroid Apophis falls to Earth, then it will become a worldwide catastrophe. The death of civilization in a certain territory is guaranteed. And even the end of all mankind is possible. The power of detonation in the event of a collision will be similar to the explosion of all nuclear weapons that is on our planet today.

For the whole history of mankind, especially in the 20-21 centuries, the end of the world was predicted many times. And each time the prophecies turned out to be unjustified, but only caused panic among the population. According to some people, the asteroid Apophis is another vain panic. Astronomers prone to statistics believe that this celestial body can in no way collide with the Earth, since quite recently (by space standards), almost a century ago, our planet was subject to the strongest blow of the Tunguska meteorite, which brought its strength to Siberia . In those days, there were violent cataclysms: the so-called "nuclear winter", radiation and some climate changes. According to the "statisticians", such cataclysms can not be committed so often. And the next similar collision awaits the Earth not earlier than in a dozen centuries.

And, agreeing with this, in 2013 NASA astronomers refuted the initially announced probability of collision of Apophis with the Earth, reducing it to 1 to 250 000. The figure is much more joyful.

But no matter how much the scientists argue, and no matter how consolatory the theories and theories are put forward, the human mind will always think and expect something terrible from the potential threat, and panic. Remember that you can sincerely believe in the near end of the world, but the probability was and remains negligible.