Near-Earth asteroid (NEA) 99942 Apophis can it cause problems here on earth with it passing so clos

Near-Earth asteroid (NEA) 99942 Apophis which will have a very close encounter with Earth on Friday, April 13, 2029, Apophis will pass Earth within the orbits of geosynchronous communication satellites. It will return for another close Earth approach in 2036. My question is with 99942 been so close can the momentum from it moving in space cause some kind of Atmospheric problems here on earth? Can it cause a powerful EMP? Can it cause things to happen like earthquakes and volcano to be come active? Has anyone revaluated the passing of 99942 after the earth was knocked off its axes? References--99942 Apophis en.wikipedia.org... *************** Chile earthquake shifted Earth's axis www.space.com...

It would have to be massive to cause problems just by passing us by. It's not nearly big enough to cause any atmospheric problems or EMP or anything like that.

Err... whoa... Let's stop for a second. (rings bell) Do we have a Phage in the house? lol....

I didn't know dead objects in space COULD cause electromagnetic pulse effects from being near or even impacting Earth directly? Is that possible? Talk about a whole new wrinkle?

BTW... Some say near miss. Personally? I'm leaving my calendar clear and watching with growing interest, what happens with the programs planned by other nations over the past couple years for capturing and containing an Asteroid. Particularly, it seems, Apollo class asteroids. What a coincidence. I'll bet it takes about the time between now and 2029 to perfect a capture routine too.

See.... There is always a new doomsday. Never a dull moment on this little rock.

reply to post by ddarkangle2bad


I'm not completely sure if the information is still applicable, but I remember watching an interview with Neil Tyson where he mentioned a small possibility of impact in 2036. Even though there was a low probability, it seemed as though they were pretty dialed in on where it would hit should it stay on that trajectory. If I remember correctly, if it passed through the center of this "window" of space it would make impact approximately 500 miles off the coast of California. Should it pass within this window but not necessarily the center, it would still impact the earth but one side of the spectrum had landfall in California and the other side it would move further into the Pacific. I'm not an astrophysicist, but I'd like to know how they would arrive at such specific coordinates if there is such a small probability of impact in the first place? The only conclusion I can draw from this is that the asteroids orbit would have to pass through this window and if it did there would be no other possible areas it could impact the Earth.

The rock is only a hundred or so meters in diameter, so unless it has an enormous magnetic field there is nothing it could do simply from being in close proximity. It won't enter the earth's atmosphere, but will remain in space where there are no drag forces, so you can count out any atmospheric disturbance. The worst thing that could happen is it could strike a satellite.

So I'm guessing the new doomsday is April 13 th? ..lol!

reply to post by ddarkangle2bad


It is way too small to make atmospheric changes while passing by.

Here is an interesting program I found. It calculates the effects of an impact.

Meteor Impact Program

You can input whatever info you want, and find out the scale of damage. It's pretty sweet.
Take for instance Apophis. It's 270m in diameter, (everything after this is an example) having a density of 3000 kg/m^3, atmospheric entry of 45 degrees at a speed of 30 km/s. Let's say you were 500 miles from impact site.

Impact in sedimentary rock felt from 500 miles away:
The air blast will arrive approximately 40.7 minutes after impact.
Peak Overpressure: 1020 Pa = 0.0102 bars = 0.146 psi
Max wind velocity: 2.4 m/s = 5.38 mph
Sound Intensity: 60 dB (Loud as heavy traffic)

The major seismic shaking will arrive approximately 2.68 minutes after impact.
Richter Scale Magnitude: 6.9

The ejecta will arrive approximately 7.27 minutes after the impact.
At your position there is a fine dusting of ejecta with occasional larger fragments.
Average Ejecta Thickness: 8.71 microns ( = 0.343 thousandths of an inch )
Mean Fragment Diameter: 145 microns ( = 5.69 thousandths of an inch )

Crater shape is normal in spite of atmospheric crushing; fragments are not significantly dispersed.
Transient Crater Diameter: 4.75 km ( = 2.95 miles )
Transient Crater Depth: 1.68 km ( = 1.04 miles )
Final Crater Diameter: 5.85 km ( = 3.63 miles )
Final Crater Depth: 504 meters ( = 1650 feet )

The average interval between impacts of this size somewhere on Earth during the last 4 billion years is 6.8 x 10^4 years (68,000 years)

Impact in water (depth 1500m) from 500 miles away:
The impact-generated tsunami wave arrives approximately 1.96 hours after impact.
Tsunami wave amplitude is less than 4.99 meters ( = 16.4 feet).

The major seismic shaking will arrive approximately 2.68 minutes after impact.
Richter Scale Magnitude: 4.9

The crater opened in the water has a diameter of 7.57 km ( = 4.7 miles ).
Transient Crater Diameter: 1.02 km ( = 0.631 miles )
Transient Crater Depth: 359 meters ( = 1180 feet )
Final Crater Diameter: 1.27 km ( = 0.789 miles )
Final Crater Depth: 270 meters ( = 887 feet )

Everything else is pretty much the same other than slight energy differences.
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Got kind of carried away, but that's an example. It's fun to go to extremes with the numbers.

Anyway I digress. There isn't any need to worry about the asteroid effecting our atmosphere from passing close by. It wouldn't really effect it after an actual impact for that matter.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


I think this is the first time Mr. Phage has not answered a call quickly! ...Weird...hope he's okay?

No, comparing gravitational force of an asteroid and planet is like comparing apple and microbes passing by The answer is no.

Where's Phage haha