Apophis larger than thought, less likely to hit us
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Two big changes to what we know of the asteroid Apophis (99942 Apophis) took place today upon observing it from about 9 million km away: one was to the size, as it turns out that the asteroid is 315 m in diameter instead of 270, and the other was to the probability of an impact in 2036, down to 1 in over 7 million.
This means that the 2029 close approach will be even better than we thought, as we will be observing an object some 75% more massive than we previously thought.
This means that the 2029 close approach will be even better than we thought, as we will be observing an object some 75% more massive than we previously thought.
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