Asteroid Apophis in 2068 may collide with the Earth, predict scientists from the Department of Celestial Mechanics of St. Petersburg State University. This is stated in a report prepared for the Royal Astronautics Readings, which will be held at the end of January.
According to researchers, on April 13, 2029, the asteroid will dangerously approach the Earth at a distance of 38 thousand kilometers - this is ten times less than from the Earth to the Moon.
In addition, in 2044, the asteroid will approach our planet by 16 million kilometers, in 2051 - by 760 thousand, and in 2060 - by five million kilometers.
NASA scientists also warned about the possibility of a collision of Apophis with the Earth. According to the calculations of specialists from the Jet Propulsion Control Laboratory, the University of Hawaii and the University of Pisa, the probability of a collision in 2068 is no higher than 2.3 per million.
The 325-meter asteroid Apophis was discovered in 2004 and named after the ancient Egyptian god of evil and destruction. The discovery caused a stir - calculations showed a 2.7 percent probability that in 2029 the asteroid will collide with the Earth. Then scientists ruled out this threat, calculating that on April 13, 2029, it will fly 37.6 thousand kilometers from the center of the Earth.
However, after that Apophis can change its orbit so that on the next return it will still collide with the Earth. To do this, at the time of convergence in 2029, he must pass through a "keyhole" - a very narrow area of space. Previously it was thought that this could lead to its fall to Earth in 2036, but then NASA experts found that this risk was practically excluded - the chances of a collision were less than one in a million.