JAKARTA – Early today, March 6, an asteroid as big as the Eiffel Tower passed past Earth.
The asteroid, 340 meters wide and made of stone, iron and nickel, is nicknamed Apophis. Its name is taken from an ancient Egyptian demon who personified chaos and evil.
This is because astronomers initially calculated that there was a 3 percent chance that this asteroid could hit Earth on flight 2029, as reported by ScienceAlert.
But don’t worry, in the course of its orbiting the sun, it won’t hit Earth, at least until 2029, or on its next trajectory in 2036.
There is still little chance that the asteroid could hit Earth in 2068, but its 2021 and 2029 flight will provide astronomers with more information to calculate Apophis’s future.
So, researchers can find a way to prevent this asteroid from hitting Earth and becoming the “Second Eiffel Tower” on Earth, or replacing Eiffel itself, given its similar size.
On March 6, 2021 01.15 GMT, the asteroid that was first seen in 2004 passed the Earth with a distance of 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers.
Apophis will pose no danger to Earth during this week’s flight. It will only pass through the Earth at a distance of 40 times the distance from the Earth to the moon.
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