We’ve been lucky enough to witness a lot of cosmic events recently.
With the sun reaching its solar maximum, this has meant a surge of activity including solar storms that have given us plenty of northern light sightings on Earth.
There was also this year’s solar eclipse which saw a rare strip of ‘totality’ go straight through the US and Canada.
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This summer, we can also expect to see a nova - the sudden explosion from a collapsed star, known as a white dwarf.
But the wonders from space don’t stop there, in fact, this upcoming event is one of the rarest from space that the world will ever see.
It’s a visit from an asteroid that may hit Earth in the future.
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The asteroid - 99942 Apophis - is on its way to us, but was only first discovered in 2004.
It was a level two which means the risk of it causing destruction on Earth is low, but further observations done last December have placed it up to level four due to a 1.6% chance that the asteroid would hit us in 2029.
Following the Torino Impact Hazard scale, NASA explains that level four is: “A close encounter, meriting attention by astronomers. Current calculations give a 1% or greater chance of collision capable of regional devastation.
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“Most likely, new telescopic observations will lead to re-assignment to Level 0. Attention by public and by public officials is merited if the encounter is less than a decade away.”
No object has ever gone near level four, so the asteroid is providing some worry for the folks at NASA.
Apophis will not collide with Earth in 2029, as well as in 2036 and 2068, though observations have concluded there will still be some close encounters.
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Davide Farnocchia of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies said of the asteroid: “A 2068 impact is not in the realm of possibility anymore and our calculations don’t show any impact risk for at least the next 100 years.”
While, thankfully, there will be no direct hit in 2029, the asteroid will be getting very close to us on Earth.
Apophis will be coming within 32,000 kilometres of the Earth's surface, closer to our planet than some of our satellites.
It should be visible from the Eastern Hemisphere without the need for a telescope or binoculars.
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And the European Space Agency (ESA) has dubbed its flyby “one of the rarest space events of our lives”.
Taking to X, formerly Twitter, they posted: “The 2029 flyby is an incredibly rare event. By comparing impact craters across the Solar System with the sizes and orbits of all known asteroids, scientists believe that an asteroid as large as Apophis only comes this close to Earth once every 5,000 to 10,000 years.”