Scientists have predicted that when the ‘God of Chaos’ asteroid passes by our planet in five years, Earth’s gravity could cause ‘astroquakes’.
An asteroid has the potential to come dangerously close to Earth in 2029 PHOTO Archive
Their research suggests that when asteroid Apophis – named after the Egyptian god of chaos – passes just 19,000 miles from Earth, our planet’s gravitational pull will cause it to shake violently.
The theoretical shaking could occur due to gravitational tidal forces, which are the stretching or pulling effect on an object caused by the unequal gravitational pull of another massive body, writes dailymail.co.uk.
The team identified two physical processes that could occur. One would cause rocks and dust to fly from the surface, and the other would trigger landslides that would occur gradually over tens of thousands of years.
Both would eventually change the surface structure of the four-billion-year-old asteroid.
Apophis, due to fly by on April 13, 2029, is a “city-killing” space rock the size of the Empire State Building.
If it were to hit Earth directly, its impact would be equivalent to detonating dozens or hundreds of nuclear bombs, according to The Planetary Society.
It wouldn’t destroy the entire Earth, but it could easily annihilate a city, spreading destruction over a radius of hundreds of kilometers.
Scientists have been paying close attention to the trajectory of this asteroid since it was first discovered in 2004. Initially, the chances of a potential impact in 2029 were relatively high at 2.7 percent.
But more recent studies have found that the odds are closer to one in two billion.
A team of researchers led by Ronald-Louis Ballouz, an asteroid researcher at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, investigated what might happen to Apophis as it passes through Earth’s gravitational field.
Asteroids typically have eroded surfaces because they are constantly bombarded by meteoroids in a process called space weathering, Ballouz told Live Science, but astronomers have long noticed that space rocks that pass by planets do not have eroded surfaces. .
He suspects that the reason could be that the planet’s gravity is stripping away the outer layer of the asteroid’s surface.
To test this, the researchers created computational models of Apophis and then simulated each model’s trajectory to Earth while tracking its physical changes, revealing that our planet’s gravitational pull could be driving two different physical processes on Apophis .
The first is represented by earthquake-like tremors, which would probably begin about an hour before the asteroid is at its closest distance to Earth and continue for some time after that.
It is difficult to say how intense this shaking will be. But Ballouz is expected to be powerful enough to change Apophis’ outer appearance, lifting boulders from the surface and allowing some rocks to escape into space.
The other process is a change in the asteroid’s roll. Space rocks like Apophis do not spin on an axis like planets do. Rather, they roll somewhat haphazardly through space.
Earth’s gravitational pull could alter Apophis’s rolling pattern, triggering landslides over tens of thousands of years that could further “refresh” its surface to reveal the layers beneath.
The research team’s findings are currently available in the arXiv preprint database and have been accepted for publication in the Planetary Science Journal.
If Ballouz’s hypothesis turns out to be correct, it could explain why other asteroids that have been subjected to planetary gravity show no signs of space decay on their surface.
But he and his team won’t know for sure until NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX mission encounters Apophis during its flyby in 2029.
This spacecraft will study the asteroid for 18 months to document any physical changes it underwent during its encounter with Earth.
As for the possibility of Apophis hitting Earth directly soon, research has determined that we’re safe for at least the next 100 years, according to the Planetary Society.
But to prepare for the unlikely event that another “city-killer” asteroid collides with Earth, NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office is developing ways to deflect or destroy them before impact.
