Let's talk asteroid Apophis, planetary defense and Elon Musk

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Let’s talk asteroid Apophis, planetary defense and Elon Musk

The rock is dubbed a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid for its relatively large size and relatively close approaches

Newsroom August 26 11:23

It’s time to talk about Apophis again, I guess. Please calm down first.

The asteroid is about 1,100 feet (340 meters) wide, was discovered in 2004 and will make a reasonably close flyby of Earth on Friday, April 13, 2029. Apophis will not hit Earth during that flyby; more on that later. Nevertheless, it’s large and close and has a snappy name, and the internet loves its asteroids.

That’s presumably how SpaceX CEO Elon Musk ended up retweeting podcaster Joe Rogan’s post of an Express story (lacking any news relevance) about Apophis. “Great name!” Musk tweeted yesterday (Aug. 18). “Wouldn’t worry about this particular one, but a big rock will hit Earth eventually & we currently have no defense.”

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Let’s talk asteroid Apophis, planetary defense and Elon Musk

The rock is dubbed a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid for its relatively large size and relatively close approaches

Ask me anything

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Let’s talk asteroid Apophis, planetary defense and Elon Musk

The rock is dubbed a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid for its relatively large size and relatively close approaches

>Related articles

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