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Wednesday, December 27, 2023

This is Unnerving

12/26/23 New York Post:
"The agency’s spacecraft OSIRIS-REx — now named the OSIRIS-APEX — has been sent off to study the asteroid Apophis’ extremely close flyby of Earth in 2029, the likes of which “hasn’t happened since the dawn of recorded history,” NASA announced."

Apophis is projected to pass by in 2029 at 20,000 miles from Earth.  This is close enough because of the unpredictable nature of orbits that many years in the future to be a little concerning.  This is 1100 feet in diameter.  That is not a dinosaur extinction event, but hitting Earth would be a very bad day for most of the impact side.  This would have at least a 25,000 mph inward speed.  The kinetic energy on that is fabulously huge 

Fortunately this was big enough that we saw it coming.

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