Apophis the Great Serpent spirit was the ultimate enemy of the Sun god Ra, destined to stop the Sun from rising over the horizon every morning. According to Margaret Bunson, author of Encyclopaedia of Ancient Egypt, the destructive spirit was said to live in the celestial waters of Nile. On sunless and rainy days, Ancient Egyptians would fear the monster Apophis succeeded in his endless battle against Ra. And on April 13, 2029, Apophis will finally appear over the Earth to light up the night skies.
Except it will not be Apophis the god of chaos but rather Apophis the 1,115ft-wide (340m) asteroid flying towards the Earth.
On the night of Apophis’ flyby, the colossal asteroid is expected to approach the Earth dangerously close.
The asteroid will streak across the starlit skies, lighting up as bright as the stars in the Little Dipper constellation.
US space agency NASA said: “The international asters research community couldn’t be more excited.”
READ MORE: Watch the incredible moment a space rock hits the Moon at 38,000MPH
The good news is Asteroid Apophis will not hit the Earth 10 years from now but the space rock will come incredibly close.
At its closest, NASA expects the asteroid to skim the Earth from a distance of about 19,000 miles (31,000km).
Many of the Earth’s spacecraft and satellite orbit our planet from this height, making Apophis’ flyby a near-miss with destruction.
NASA’s Marina Brozovic, a radar scientist, said: “The Apophis close approach in 2029 will be an incredible opportunity for science.
“We’ll observe the asteroid with both optical and radar telescopes.
READ MORE: Asteroid WARNING drill: ‘Millions of people to EVACUATE’ in dire ESA impact simulation
“With radar observations, we might be able to see surface details that are only a few meters in size.”
According to NASA, it is incredibly rare for an asteroid as big as Apophis to shoot past Earth this close.
It is more common for asteroid in the range of 16.4ft to 33ft (5m to 10m) to zip by within similar distances.
Asteroid Apophis will look like a fast-moving star when it first arrives over the Southern Hemisphere in 2029.
READ MORE: Watch major asteroid DESTROY Earth in fiery crash simulation
The asteroid will be visible to the naked eye and streak across the skies over Australia, America, Africa and the Indian Ocean.
The space rock was first discovered at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in 2004 and was later confirmed by astronomers at the Siding Spring Survey in Australia the same year.
NASA said: “Since its discovery, optical and radar telescopes have tracked Apophis as it continues to on its orbit around the Sun, so we know its future trajectory quite well.
“Current calculations show that Apophis still has a small chance of impacting Earth, less than one in 100,000 many decades from now, but future measurements of its position can be expected to rule out any possible impacts.”