Asteroid Apophis UPSC | UPSC247 Current Affairs & Quiz

Asteroid Apophis UPSC | UPSC247 Current Affairs & Quiz – Recently, the USA’s NASA space agency has ruled out the possibility of the dreaded asteroid Apophis causing any damage to the Earth for the next 100 years. Here We are Sharing Full Details of The Asteroid Apophis And Questions And Answers Based On This topic .

Asteroid Apophis UPSC | UPSC247 Current Affairs & Quiz

Asteroid Apophis, which was expected to pass extremely close to Earth, may now hit the blue planet in 2068 due to a phenomenon called Yarkovsky effect. This effect has eventually accelerated the asteroid’s flow and also changed its path.

Asteroid Apophis

• It is named after the ancient Egyptian god of chaos and darkness.
• It was discovered in 2004, after which NASA had said that it was one of the asteroids that posed the greatest threat to Earth.
• It measures 340 metre across which is comparable to the size of the huge ship that has currently blocked the Suez Canal.
• The astronomers used the 70-metre radio antenna at the Deep Space Network’s Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex near Barstow, California in order to track Apophis’ motion.
• They also used the 100-metre Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia which showed imaging of Apophis.
• The two systems were used together in a “bistatic” experiment that doubled the strength of the received signal.
• Apophis is categorised as a potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs).

Potentially Hazardous Asteroids:

• It means that an asteroid has the potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth.
• Specifically, all asteroids with a Minimum Orbit Intersection Distance (MOID) of 0.05 AU (which is about 7,480,000 Km) or less and an Absolute Magnitude (H) of 22.0 (about 150 mt in diameter) or less are considered PHAs.
• MOID is a method for calculating the minimum distance between two almost overlapping elliptical orbits.
• The absolute magnitude is a measure of the star’s luminosity i.e. the total amount of energy radiated by the star every second.

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Questions And Answers :

Q1 – In Which Year Asteroid Apophis Was Discovered ?

1. 2005
2. 2006
3. 2004
4. 2003

Q2 – Deep Space Network’s Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex IS Located On Which Place ?

1. Verginia
2. New york
3. Alasaka
4. California

Q3 – Minimum Orbit Intersection Distance (MOID) Is The Method Used For ?

1. Distance between Two Asteroids
2. Distance Between Two Planets
3. The minimum distance between two almost overlapping elliptical orbits
4. All Of The Above

Answers : 

1. C
2. D
3. C