Asteroid Apophis.

The exact time of the Apocalypse has been known for a possible second. Friday, April 13, 2029, 4.36 am GMT. Concealing the energy of 65,000 nuclear bombs of asteroid Apophis with a mass of 50 million tons and a diameter of 320 meters cross the orbit of the moon and headed toward Earth at a speed of 45,000 kilometers per hour.

"This is really dangerous for the Earth, because if an asteroid falls on its surface - a fall it will be at a rate not less than 16 kilometers per second - that of one of its fall release of energy will be like the fall of thousands of nuclear bombs in the atmosphere will rise a huge amount of dust "- says head of the laboratory State Astronomical Institute of Moscow State University, Mikhail Prokhorov.

The catastrophe will happen if the space cobblestone fall into the gravitational "keyhole": a strip of space in a kilometer wide. The force of attraction of the Earth simply deploy Apophis in a dangerous direction, and the planet would literally at gunpoint at the time of the next rendezvous - April 13, 2036. Scientists are looking for ways to stop a deadly way. The main idea - to change the orbit. Some offer a set on the surface of Apophis rocket engine, the other - the aggressor fling spacecraft frontal impact, and others - to undermine a powerful nuclear charge. Scientists catastrophists sigh: all meaningless.

"This asteroid nobody will stop because it larger, - says Vladimir Alexeyev, head of the laboratory Troitsk Institute for Innovation and Fusion Research. - It is very dangerous because it will cover a vast territory, as the Tunguska ยป.

In a collision of Apophis might do unprecedented harm. His fall falls on a strip 50 kilometers, runs through Russia, Central America and the Atlantic: the hundreds of cities threatened with destruction. But even if Apophis will fall into the ocean, it forms a funnel depth of 3 and 8 km in diameter, from which all sides will run tsunami. As a result, for example, the coast of Florida would be under twenty-meter waves kick that hour will crumble to the mainland. However, at this convergence of a boulder as say scientists, after all fly past Earth at a distance of 30 thousand kilometers. But further meetings can be fatal.

"Even if this collision will not happen on these speeds it will continue to move closer to the Earth, and the chance that it will happen through 50-150 years old, will remain" - exaggerates Mikhail Prokhorov.

However, Russia is already developing a way to save the planet from the apocalypse. Potential enemies need to know in person - for that Apophis plan to send so-called "gravity tractor." It will study the behavior of this cosmic body, its structure, and will try to reject the orbit of the asteroid to prevent even the slightest chance of a collision. The mission is scheduled for 2020.





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