The asteroid Apophis was discovered in 2004. Previously, NASA experts claimed that it could fall to Earth in 2029
The following after 2029 approximation of Apophis andThe Earth will be held in 2044 - by 16 million km, in 2015 - by 760 thousand km, in 2060 - by 5 million km, and in 2068 the orbits can coincide. This is due to the fact that in 2029 Apophis will slightly change its orbit as a result of a too close approach to the Earth. However, so far this probability is estimated at no more than 2.7%.
Probably, in the future, astronomers will launch an asteroid research apparatus - and may even be able to land on it by analogy with the missions to the asteroid Bennu and the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Previously astronomers from the University of Arizonafound traces of water in soil samples taken by the Hayabusa-1 apparatus on the Itokawa asteroid. This partially confirms the hypothesis that all the water on Earth appeared due to asteroids.