Well, we aren’t safe from all asteroids, but a recent radar survey of the asteroid Apophis, sometimes referred to by the name,” God of Chaos” has plotted the orbit of the asteroid and declared Earth safe from impact for the next 100 years.
As Apophis made its flyby on March 5, 2021, it was tracked by the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex near Barstow, California and the orbit recalculated. The position of Apophis is now confirmed to an accuracy of 490 feet.
Don’t misunderstand, Apophis is still a potentially hazardous asteroid. It’s due to pass again on Friday the 13th 2029 and come within 20,000 miles of the planets surface. This is close enough that some earthlings will be able to spot the God of Chaos in the skies as it hopefully zips past Earth.
The new calculations assure NASA that Apophis will not impact Earth during future passes in 2038 or 2068, thus this rocky body will be removed from JPL’s Sentry Impact Risk table.
There are currently 2,179 potentially hazardous asteroids, so one down 2,178 other hazards are still out there, and new ones are being spotted all the time.
As I have stated before, it’s not the asteroids we’ve found and are tracking that concern me. It’s ones we haven’t found.
Whenever our government assures us, we are safe, that’s when I worry most.