The asteroid Apothos is due to hit us in 2036. Should we deflect it?
we do have 29 years and we should deflect. we have techonolgy to stop apophis but its not built yet.there is a chance that it could hit us because there is a key hole and if apophis past threw that key hole it will have a direct hit for earth in 2036.so they need to get off there smart buts and do something fast before we are looking down the dark end of apophis.
A hit by Apophis would be a major event, and something to be avoided. It is perhaps interesting to follow your logic a bit further and say “well we think it will help offset global warming so lets deflect it INTO a position where it will hit.” This is one of the many things about deflection technology, we need to have confidence in those doing the deflection to do it right and not be nefarious. On the other hand we’ve been in a similar position for 40 or 50 years over nuclear weapons. At the moment we also have pretty much no idea where it would hit if it were so to do. Our knowledge of the trajectory would have to improve considerably to be able to predict an evacuation zone with any certainty. If you read the JPL/NASA material you’ll see that they think we can afford to wait a bit longer over Apophis. The best time to mount a deflection would be in the lead up to the 2029 pass since a small change in the position then leads to a large change at later encounters. The next opportunity
Although it is theoretically possible to deflect an asteroid the size of Apophis, I seriously doubt we could pull in off in the 29 years we have. It would take that long just to convince congress to spend any money on the problem. As others have pointed out, before Apophis can been seen as a real threat, it first has to pass through a narrow window on its first visit in 2028, a “keyhole” which will cause it to return and collide in 2036. Sure the odds are 1:45,000. But the odds of winning the lottery are 1:840 million, and people have been know to win the lottery. Still, odds are we’ll have to wait until 2028 to know for sure and by then it’ll be too late. So if it hits, it hits. If Apophis does hit, it will strike the Pacific Ocean, possibly causing a huge tsunami, So be sure you’re not living anywhere near the Pacific coast in 2036.
