On April 13, 2029 a large asteroid named Apophis (Op-O-Hiss) with a diameter of over 1,000 feet will pass within 19,000 miles of the Earth. Because this asteroid is so large and comes so close to earth it could possibly be observed with the naked eye by about 2 billion people as it moves across the sky. This is the largest known asteroid to come this close to Earth in our life time. This event is still nine years away giving scientists time to plan how to observe it and learn what they can from this rare event.
Near Earth objects is just what their name implies. These small to large objects orbit around the Sun and come near our Earth from time to time. What makes the near earth objects so dangerous is the fact that some of them because of their size have the potential to actually slam into the earth and cause great damage and destruction. It is believed that the destruction of the dinosaurs was caused by just such an event.
Fortunately for us, none of the known Near Earth objects is likely to hit the earth anytime soon. There is a small but not insignificant chance that some unknown object could still surprise us, but those types of objects are being diligently searched for by astronomers.
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