Asteroid Apophis might cause a massive tsunami wiping out west coast of North America

During a previous public lecture at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco, California, Tyson discussed Apophis 99942’s potential to hit Earth in the future, reported Express.co.uk. According to the astrophysicist, if the asteroid goes through a gravitational keyhole, there’s a chance it could hit Earth and crash in an area near Los Angeles.

“We know it won’t hit Earth, we know it will be closer than the orbiting satellites,” he said during the lecture. “But there is a 600-mile zone – we call it the keyhole – and if the asteroid goes through the middle of that it will hit Earth 13 years later….it will hit 500 miles west of Santa Monica,” he said.

Tyson went on to explain how an impact in the ocean would trigger a tsunami, “If it goes through the centre, it will plunge down into the Pacific Ocean to a depth of three miles, at which point it explodes, caveating the Pacific in a hole that’s three miles wide. The 5 km-high wall collapses, falling back against itself and rising high into the atmosphere before falling back down to the ocean, generating tsunami waves.”

“So now you make a cavity a second time. This cycle takes about 50 seconds, you can calculate it,” Tyson added. “All the artificial stuff, all the houses, factories, they get churned into the force that sandblasts the entire west coast of North America clean.”

Tyson said the world would know on 12 April 2029 if the asteroid had “threaded the keyhole”, leaving several Americans a headstart on finding a new home.

Apophis 99942: Earlier observations

Early observations of the asteroid in 2004 indicated that there is up to 3 per cent chance that the Apophis 99942 could impact the Earth on April 13, 2029, which created panic at the time. But it was later ruled out in 2006 when scientists predicted that Apophis would pass through a 600-mile gravitational keyhole — a small region in space that changes an object’s gravity — which pushed the date of Apophis’ impact to April 13, 2036.

However, a 2036 impact has since been deemed almost impossible with scientists instead eyeing the year 2068 with a tiny possibility of one in 150,000 chance of asteroid colliding with the Earth.

According to NASA, Apophis 99942 will likely not hit the Earth in 2036, but if it does, it would land somewhere in the eastern hemisphere and release 1,600 megatonnes of energy.

Also read | Asteroid bigger than Empire State Building to pass by Earth on August 10: Should you worry?

Recently, NASA detected an asteroid the size of the Empire State Building, Asteroid 2006 QQ23, and said that it will pass Earth on August 10. Earlier another asteroid named Asteroid 2019 OK, which was dubbed as ‘city killer‘ came very close to Earth and scientists almost missed it.

NASA estimates that hundreds of space debris and rocks burn in their entry into the planet’s atmosphere on a daily basis. Even asteroids that are larger and aren’t burned up in the atmosphere, can strike the Earth at least once a year, creating some damage.