The asteroid Apophis will skim close to earth in 2029 but according to the animation it will be very close to the moon aswell, will this mess up the moon`s orbit?

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Title explains it, the animation is in this article from Iflscience
But phew that was “close” to hitting the moon.

https://www.iflscience.com/astronomers-just-updated-the-chance-infamous-god-of-chaos-asteroid-will-hit-earth-73240

In: Planetary Science

4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

The moon is 1000000000000 times more massive than Apophis, and so will exert 1000000000000 times more gravitational disturbance on the asteroid than the asteroid can exert on the moon.

The effect on the moon’s orbit will be negligible, but the effect on the asteroid’s orbit may be significant.

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