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A NASA scientist, working on the data gathered through the extensive tracking of the Potentially Hazardous Asteroid Apophis, has concluded that the 400-meter (1312 feet, or just under one-quarter of a mile) wide asteroid poses no serious threat of colliding with the Earth in its next fly-by in 2029. In fact, the odds against the asteroid actually hitting the Earth are far higher than originally thought.
Paul Chodas, Manager of JPL’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies told Astrowatch.net that calculations could not eliminate the possibility of Apophis colliding with the Earth, the numbers indicated that said possibility of impact was increasingly less likely.
“We cannot yet exclude the possibility that it could impact our planet, but we can calculate that the chance of Earth impact is only a 1-in-100-thousand over the next century, which of course is extremely small.”