April 13, 2036: Will It All End on This Day?

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fiery asteroid speeding towards earth's Armageddon

“It” being the end of civilization as we know it. Have you heard about the Apophis asteroid? That’s what some believe might slam into earth on April 13, 2036 with apocalyptic consequences.

I first heard about it a couple of years ago. I noted the date after a friend told me about it. The date, that is. Not the asteroid. He told me doomsday theorists had identified April 13, 2036 as the date the world would end, but didn’t say why they thought that.

I’m not sure if he knew it was fueled by fears of an asteroid slamming into earth or not. Sadly, he died suddenly earlier this year so I can’t ask him about it.

But I did do a quick Internet search of “April 13, 2036,” which handily auto-filled in with a “doomsday” option.

I was able to pretty quickly get caught up.

Five Things to Know

Here’s the top five things to know about this particular asteroid and the likelihood that it all ends on April 13, 2036.

  1. The asteroids technical name is 99942 Apophis.
  2. It first caused concern in 2004 when scientists calculated a 2.7% probability that it would hit earth on April 13, 2029. (Which would be a Friday the 13th, and that would prove to be very unlucky indeed.)
  3. The Apophis asteroid reached a level 4 on the Torino scale in 2006, the highest rating as asteroid had ever reached on that scale.
  4. If it didn’t hit in 2029, there was a chance it could pass through a gravitational keyhole at that time, which would set it up to hit earth on April 13, 2036.
  5. In 2013, the probability of an impact in 2036 was eliminated.

Other Facts

Here’s a couple of other interesting facts about the Apophis asteroid and asteroids in general:

  1. It’s as big as three and a half football fields, or seven London buses. In other words, it’s pretty significant in size. Especially if it slammed into Earth.
  2. Apophis was an Egyptian god who they believed attacked the sun god Ra each night when the sun set. Apophis was also a villain on the TV series, Stargate SG-1. The men who discovered the asteroid in 2004 are said to have been Stargate SG-1 fans. With the chaos and destruction an asteroid the size of the one they discovered could create if it ever did hit Earth, it seems Apophis was a fitting name.
  3. According to Wikipedia, “on average, one asteroid the size of Apophis…can be expected to impact Earth about every 80,000 years.”
  4. There’s a 1 in 150,000 risk of an Apophis impact on April 12, 2068.
  5. Also according to Wikipedia, there are five other asteroids with “a more notable cumulative Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale than Apophis.”
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Determination

I think it’s safe to say there’s a low probability it will all end on April 13, 2036. April 12, 2068, on the other hand, is up in the air at this point.

Also, there are other asteroids we might want to keep an eye out for. They could cause us problems before Apophis gets a chance.

Check-In

Do you feel more reassured now? (In case you didn’t feel assured to start, that is.)

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