Apophis, Asteroid of Doom?
Watchers of the skies have some rather sophisticated equipment, and they detected 99942 asteroid Apophis in 2004. This bad boy is named after the Egyptian deity of chaos and darkness, an enemy of the sun god Ra. Fearmongers are saying that it fits Bible prophesy and will strike Earth.
The chances of impacting our blue marble in 2029 were small at first, and NASA ruled it out later on. (There are uncertainties in tracking these distant things.) Some people may be able to see it as it makes its pass then, and the chance of an impact in 2036 are also ruled out. When you have someone saying that everyone else is wrong and he is the one to believe, recalculate with his standards, scientists ignored him.
Still, people want to sell books. We saw that before with previous predictions and false prophesies involving blood moons, global warming, CERN, end-of-the-world date setting (biblical numerology), and so on, and books did indeed sell. People like the sensationalistic stuff, but they seem to lack knowledge of both Scripture and science. Apophis is not a problem, and we know that our Creator is sovereign. Now we can let astronomer Dr. Danny Faulkner discuss this further:
Sound for this short video is not necessary:
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| Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech |
Still, people want to sell books. We saw that before with previous predictions and false prophesies involving blood moons, global warming, CERN, end-of-the-world date setting (biblical numerology), and so on, and books did indeed sell. People like the sensationalistic stuff, but they seem to lack knowledge of both Scripture and science. Apophis is not a problem, and we know that our Creator is sovereign. Now we can let astronomer Dr. Danny Faulkner discuss this further:
There has been some recent interest in the asteroid 99942 Apophis and its close encounter with earth expected in 2029. When discovered in 2004, the preliminary orbit for Apophis indicated that it might crash onto earth on April 13, 2029 (yes, that is a Friday). However, as is always the case, follow-up observations improved our knowledge of the orbit. We now know that Apophis will pass close very close to the earth that day, but it will miss. How close will Apophis come? Its closest approach will be about 20,000 miles (about one-tenth of the distance between the earth and the moon). Apophis’ longest dimension is nearly 1,500 feet. No object of such size is known to have passed that close to the earth. When nearest to the earth, Apophis ought to appear as a third magnitude star moving about 40 degrees per hour. It would be quite a sight for people with moderately dark skies that night.To continue reading, click on "Apophis, Bible Prophesy, and the Year 2029".