A photo from open sources
Asteroid 2004 MN4 was discovered by astronomers at the observatory. Kitt Peak (USA, Arizona) in 2004 July 19, 2005 received his own name – Apophis. Named after the ancient Egyptian god Apopus – mythical huge snake, which, living in the underworld, trying to destroy the Sun (Ra) during its night transition. There is a high probability that on April 13, 2036, an asteroid can collide with our planet. According to scientists, in 2029 Apophis will pass at a distance of about 30 thousand kilometers from ours the planet. Under the influence of the Earth’s gravitational field, its trajectory flight will change and, returning to 2036, it could fall on surface of the planet. The date of a possible collision calculated employee of St. Petersburg State University Leonid Sokolov. This is April 13, 2036. Even if Apophis passes by, the probability of a collision in subsequent years will not only persist, but will increase. Crossing the Earth’s orbit every seven years, an asteroid 2004 MN4 inexorably reduces the distance to its surface. Till it is impossible to calculate exactly where exactly Apophis will get if he destined to fall to Earth. According to preliminary calculations, the probability zone of the fall begins from the Urals, passing along border of Russia with Kazakhstan and Mongolia, crosses the Pacific Ocean, Central America, the Atlantic Ocean and ends near coast of Africa. What happens if an ominous asteroid really fall to earth? According to astronomers, sizes Apophis reach up to 415m in diameter, and the mass is about 50 million tons. Crashing into the surface of the planet at a speed not less than 16km / s, it will cause an explosion with a capacity of about five hundred megatons (500,000,000 tons of TNT equivalent). For comparison: the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima had a power of about 20 kilotons (20,000 tons); power tested by the Soviet Union in 1961 at New Earth thermonuclear “Tsar bomb” (aka “Kuzkina mother”) amounted to about 60 megatons; explosion of the volcano Krakatau in 1883 released energy equivalent to 200 megatons (with splinters islands scattered over a distance of 500 km). Anyway, an explosion asteroid will cause colossal destruction with an area of thousands square kilometers. Catastrophic destruction can undergo hundreds of cities. It is possible that the count of victims will be in the hundreds of millions of people. The explosion will throw a huge the amount of dust in the atmosphere. And his fall into the ocean will lead to the formation of a funnel with a depth of 3 km and a diameter of about 8 km. Effects the resulting tsunamis will be terrible. Currently on There are three centers on the planet whose activities are aimed at identification of space objects that pose a real threat to of our planet. Two of them are located in the United States, and one in Italy. 99% of all information is owned by Americans. And she doesn’t share in a hurry. On the contrary, they are doing their best to restrict access. other countries to the data they received. Thanks to their efforts, in at the beginning of the 2000s, data were closed for Russian scientists observations of the geostationary orbit. In 2009, closed data on observations of the entry into the atmosphere of fireballs. In our country There is no global tracking system for dangerous space objects. And this causes alarm among many scientists. In space is about 7 thousand objects approaching our planet, and more than a thousand of they represent a real danger. And these are only objects which were found. In addition to asteroids, a great danger represent comets. Especially those that move toward the Earth from the side Of the sun. It’s hard to detect them, and the speed of comets is incomparably greater asteroid speeds. Even if you can timely detect a comet flying to the planet, there will be time to take any measures extremely few. There are currently no weapons on Earth that could would be used effectively to reflect a fall on the planet space objects. And to create it, you need to combine the efforts of all mankind. Asteroid Apophis can be considered as an object where it is possible to work out joint actions on eliminate asteroid hazard. Each country alone makes some efforts. In Russia, the problem of prevention A possible clash is being dealt with by the Lavochkin NGO. Since 2012 to 2014 is scheduled to send to the asteroid research apparatus for its detailed study. And this device is developing NGO Lavochkina. If the mission succeeds, the accuracy of tracking Apophysis can be significantly increased. It is positive will affect the calculations of its possible threat to our planet. And all however, efforts to repel the threat from outer space must be combined. Not one the country of the world will not have the guarantee that, having reached certain success in solving the problem, another country, having precisely calculated that the cosmic body must fall into its territory, not reject the trajectory of his movement. Reject not for the purpose of making the object walked past the planet, and so that it fell into the territory of the probable the enemy.
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