MOSCOW, Nov 26Asteroid Apophis, which will fly near the Earth in 2029, most likely will not “affect” the orbit of geostationary satellites, but there is still a small probability that one of the devices will be “shot down”, said Nikolai Zheleznov, a senior researcher at the Institute of Applied Astronomy (IPA) of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
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"Most likely, it will fly past and not hit anyone. Space is big, but objects are small. We must also understand that satellites move above the equator, which still has a high orbital inclination. The theoretical probability, albeit small, always exists, but, according to preliminary calculations, Apophis will still fly a little away from geostationary satellites,” said the agency’s interlocutor.
According to him, if Apophis does will «hook» the orbit of satellites, it will be able to disable «at most one» spacecraft, which will not lead to noticeable consequences on Earth.
According to the latest calculations, the asteroid Apophis, discovered in 2004 , should fly at a distance of 32 thousand kilometers from Earth on April 13, 2029. Geostationary satellites fly at approximately this distance from its surface.
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