Will the sky fall in 2029?

• Position: SPACE - Asteroid Apophis - Brief article

Named for the Egyptian god of destruction, the asteroid Apophis is a "city buster" about the size of a 25-story building. Apophis is scheduled to fly close to Earth in 2029 and 2036, and the head of Russia's space agency says any impact with Earth could kill hundreds of thousands of people. (Apophis is three times the size of the Tunguska meteorite, believed to be the cause of a 1908 explosion in Siberia that flattened 80 million trees.) Russia's top space scientists think they can deflect Apophis, and are planning several. possible missions, including striking the asteroid with missiles or...