Scientists have updated the chance that devastating 'God of Chaos' asteroid will hit Earth

One of the scariest things floating through space is a terrifying asteroid the size of a football pitch.

It's called Apophis - which refers to one of the most evil demons in Egyptian mythology, which was dubbed the 'God of Chaos'.

And that's a pretty apt description for this absolutely massive asteroid.

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For a long time, astronomers feared it was on a collision course with our planet.

It's 890 feet in diameter, so if it hit us, the consequences would be absolutely dire.

Luckily, further research and observation have demonstrated that, while it'll likely get close, it almost certainly won't hit us.

Apophis should instead pass around 23,000 miles from Earth in 2029 without any negative outcomes - which is a huge relief.

NASA has, in the last few years, been running tests to see if it could divert incoming asteroids or meteors through collisions with probes or missiles, and those tests have been going well, suggesting we could escape from certain impacts if they were spotted far enough in advance.

However, they've raised another concern - if we can deliberately redirect asteroids away from Earth, is it possible that accidental collisions with other asteroids or bits of space debris could in fact redirect one toward us unexpectedly?

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Well, a team led by Western University in Canada has been investigating just that question.

They mapped out literally millions of trajectories in our solar system to see if any of known asteroids might get close enough to hit Apophis - changing its course towards Earth.

And there's good news, because the results suggest there is no chance of such a redirect accidentally taking place.

As the study's lead, Professor Paul Wiegert, put it: "We calculated the paths of all known asteroids using a detailed computer simulation of our solar system and the possibility of such an unlikely event was evaluated. Fortunately, no such collisions are anticipated."

The team has even translated its mapping into a video showing a selection of the very closest encounters that Apophis should have with other asteroids, for those who want to check it out:

This doesn't mean that we'll just forget about Apophis, though - the asteroid is still of really great interest to the scientific community.

NASA is currently sending a spacecraft towards it, with the aim of collecting samples - all to better understanding the vast and extraordinary universe around us.