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The problem is that you'd need to find a way to get up to speed with the asteroid. Because else you're firing the tracking device in to the asteroid as worlds fastest hypersonic shell... Or well it gets driven over by the asteroid and obliterated. You don't have to worry too much about tracking though, objects like this get tracked over time anyway and with each bit of data they get the course predictions ever more accurate. A close pass is basically a way to get even more exacting data on the asteroids long term path. Maybe in future they'll send a rendezvous mission to it though, just to study it in more detail so they can know all they need to get it out of our hair permanently if need be.

Yea why can't we just do that? I know the asteroid travells really really fast so you will have to match speed with it, but the ISS travells at about 7 kilometers per second and asteroids are around 15? I know its a lot adding 8km/s of delta v but don't we have efficient ion engines or something we can use to efficiently accelerate over time? I know that won't work well around in orbit around the earth because you can't constantly expand ur perioapsis, but this should be possible if you leave the earths SOI.

@@gamerbath7921 The Earth orbital velocity around the Sun is about 30 km/s, so it depends a bit on the angle it cuts Earth orbit with, how bigger the angle how worse the speed difference would be with such a high base speed. Another issue is that Apophis falls in to Earths gravity well, so it speeds up all the way down, gaining quite a few km/s. So as you say, if you leave Earth SOI then you could aim for more convenient timings out there in space. And if one wants to go to it, that's probably what they would do. We've had a few asteroid rendezvous missions by now after all, so this is far from impossible. But it does take some time to setup.

:3c

2029

it isn't for around 100 years or so

To answer your concerns TRUTHFULLY, they (cosmologists) don't really know. They're guessing. They're EDUCATED guesses, but guesses none-the-less.

@@Rotorhead1651 Even the way in which we measure time using a Cesium Atomic Clock is a guess. We are guessing that 300 Million years from now, the time given by the clock will be either half a second ahead or half a second behind the true time. At this level, only someone who is either completely disingenuous or insufferable would call it a guess. But yeah, technically, it is a "guess." smh.

Imagine if someone fired a handgun at you, but seconds later turns out the bullet missed. While some would think that the situation is no threat at all, others would try to ensure that they wouldn’t get hit by a second bullet. Statistics is a funny thing.

A ridiculous amount of nukes

​@@mercerwing1458 or a big orbit to move it away

Nothing, close flyby like that are really difficult moments to intercept an object. Not because you can't hit it, but because it's one of the points its moving the fastest and so shoots by at ridiculous speed and just runs over anything that gets in the way. And out rockets are a bit to meagre for now to easily get up to those kind of speed differences. So in practise they tend to aim for other moments when speed differences are less bad. Though of course to even try that they'd first need funding for it. Well in any case fair chance they'll put some instruments on it to study it in more detail, it is after all coming in close enough to resolve some details if you wanted with near earth observatories. So you could certainly learn more about it and also greatly improve the track data on it so you know exactly where it will be going for a long time to come.

you can keep believing that

@@skoovee and you keep being a hater

@@skoovee I think the comment was being facetious.

I feel your frustration, but you have to think of all of the other life on this planet that doesn't deserve to be snuffed out because of us *the virus and shoes".

Erm the indomitable human spirit remember

​@@rexxe001 Means absotively, posilutely dick, once GOD starts winding up for his next pitch.

He loves us, His children, and dearly wants to save as many of us as possible, according to our choices and will. His work and glory is to bring about the immortality and eternal life of man.

@@IntoAllTruth. you're delusional and you're talking complete b*******