Mark Your Calendars: An Enormous Asteroid Will Fly Past Earth on April 13, 2029

By Edward Era Barbacena

An asteroid that’s roughly the size of three football fields is on track to whiz past Earth on April 13, 2029. Fortunately for us, it isn’t in danger of hitting our humble planet, according to Space.com.

The asteroid, which was discovered in 2004, is named Apophis after the Egyptian spirit of evil and destruction. Scientists previously suggested that there was a 2.7 percent chance of it striking Earth, but the odds were later reduced to “less than one in a million,” Don Yeomans, a retired planetary scientist for NASA, said in 2013.

Indeed, if it were ever to collide with Earth, “it would cause major damage to our planet and likely to our civilization as well,” according to a statement issued for the 2019 International Academy of Astronautics's Planetary Defense Conference

On the bright side, the asteroid is expected to put on quite the show. Because it will come within 19,000 miles of Earth—which is pretty close by celestial standards—it will be visible to the naked eye. NASA says Apophis will soar over Australia before heading across the Indian Ocean, Africa, the Atlantic Ocean, and finally the United States. It will be visible in the eastern U.S. by mid-morning, but its closest approach will be just before 6 p.m. EDT. “By 7 p.m. EDT, the asteroid will have crossed over the United States,” NASA wrote in a statement.

Huge hunks of space rock hurtling toward Earth are not only great fodder for action-packed blockbuster films; they’re also a great way for scientists to learn more about these heavenly bodies. Although small asteroids measuring 5 to 10 meters across sometimes fly by Earth, it’s rare to get a close-up look at asteroids the size of Apophis.

“The Apophis close approach in 2029 will be an incredible opportunity for science,” Marina Brozović, a radar scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement. “We’ll observe the asteroid with both optical and radar telescopes. With radar observations, we might be able to see surface details that are only a few meters in size.”