The world might end by 2068… Read more to know why!!!!

A large asteroid, which is the size of 3 football fields, expected to pass extremely close to our Earth, may now hit the planet in 2068 due to a phenomenon called Yarkovsky effect. This effect eventually accelerated the asteroid’s flow and also changed its path.

The sun can heat an asteroid in a non-uniform way, causing the space rock to radiate heat energy asymmetrically. This can cause a thrust or a tiny push in a certain direction, sometimes changing the path of the asteroid. This effect is called the Yarkovsky acceleration.

“All asteroids need to reradiate as heat the energy they absorb from sunlight in order to maintain thermal equilibrium, a process that slightly changes the orbit of the asteroid,” a statement said. Before the discovery of Yarkovsky effect, the possibility of the collision was impossible. “The detection of this effect acting on Apophis means that the 2068 impact scenario is still a possibility”.

As per the new calculations by astronomers, asteroid Apophis, which will also be extremely close to Earth on April 13, 2029, is deviating from its actual orbit and may crash into Earth in 2028. An astronomer said, “We have known for some time that an impact with Earth is not possible during the 2029 close approach.” “The new observations we obtained with the Subaru telescope earlier this year were good enough to reveal the Yarkovsky acceleration of Apophis, and they show that the asteroid is drifting away from a purely gravitational orbit by about 170 meters per year, which is enough to keep the 2068 impact scenario in play”.

“Basically, the heat that an asteroid radiates gives it a very tiny push… The warmer hemisphere [of the asteroid] would be pushing slightly more than the cooler hemisphere, and that causes the asteroid to drift away from what a purely gravitational orbit would predict,” he said.

As per reports of Nasa, during its 2029 flyby, “asteroid Apophis will first become visible to the naked eye in the night sky over the southern hemisphere”. It will look like “a speck of light moving from east to west over Australia”.