Space Events

Doomsday Asteroid

A near-earth asteroid once considered a potential killer is even bigger than expected, but still not a threat to humanity – now or in the future.

When asteroid 99942 Apophis was discovered in June 2004, initial analyses of its trajectory suggested a small chance that it could collide with the Earth in the year 2029, causing an explosion equivalent to 1480 megatons of TNT–nearly 30 times larger than the biggest hydrogen bomb ever detonated. But later observations have given astronomers a better view of the object, and made it clear that the likelihood of a collision was so small as to be negligible.