‘Airplane-sized’ asteroids will zoom close to Earth today – and it’s just one of the ‘uncomfortable’ close flybys to come

We will tempt you.

On Tuesday, three “airplane”-sized asteroids will shoot past the planet, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The first is an 84-footer that will be 1,130,000 miles away, followed by a 110-foot space rock at a distance of 2,130,000 miles, and then a 140-foot asteroid at 2,440,000 miles.

And that’s not all: On Saturday, a 600-foot asteroid “the size of a building” will fly by 3,470,000 miles away.

However, these current events are rolling out the red carpet for a project that has had the space administration sweating for some time.

Another asteroid may one day hit Earth when it makes a close “uncomfortable” flyby in 2029 – so close that people can see it with their own eyes and without telescopes.

Asteroid 99942, better known as Apophis discovered in 2004, was named for an ancient Egyptian mythological “serpent demon” that personified evil and chaos.

NASA described this 1,100-foot space fiend as a “near-Earth object” — one that garnered “fame…when astronomers predicted it would come uncomfortably close in 2029.”

The latest analyzes firmly rule out a collision course, but it will still pass within 20,000 miles of Earth’s surface in five years.

That distance is closer than orbiting satellites, according to NASA, which noted that it is too early to tell whether the asteroid would hit Earth on a return trip over a century from now.

“If it hit a populated area, it could blow away a city the size of New York,” NASA principal scientist Daniella DellaGiustina, working on a mission to map Apophis, told the Washington Post.

As for the near future, skygazers should mark April 13, 2029, as their chance to see Apophis.

Those in the Eastern Hemisphere — most of Europe and Africa, plus all of Asia and Australia — will see the asteroid clearly overhead without the need for optical equipment. The Washington Post also noted that the visibility of Apophis will be on a scale ten times that of the moon.

“It’s also an unprecedented opportunity for astronomers to get a close-up view of a solar system relic that is now merely a scientific curiosity and not an immediate danger to our planet,” NASA noted.

Apophis’ close encounter with Earth could also cause “asteroid earthquakes” as a result of interactions with the planet’s gravitational pull.

After 2029, the space rock will pass again in 2036 and much later in 2068.

“A 2068 impact is no longer in the realm of possibility, and our calculations show no impact risk for at least the next 100 years,” said Davide Farnocchia of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies. .

As for the future beyond that, Apophis’ trajectory—and its potential to crash into Earth—remains unknown at that time.