‘God of Chaos’ asteroid to pass by Earth this weekend
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March 4, 2021

‘God of Chaos’ asteroid to pass by Earth this weekend

A massive asteroid named Apophis after the Egyptian god of chaos will pass by Earth this weekend.

While it will pass safely this time around, experts warn it could still collide with Earth in 2068.

Apophis is all of 1,115ft wide and will be 16 million km away when its passes by earth at around 01:15 GMT on Saturday, March 6. This means that its closest approach to Earth will be 44 times further out than the moon is to the planet.

Lucky us because scientists say if the massive space rock were to hit the Earth in 2068 the impact would be equivalent to 880 million tons of trinitrotoluene (TNT) exploding all at once.

Apophis was discovered on June 19, 2004, by astronomers at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona and since then it has been tracked as it orbits the sun.

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