I was watching the PBS "Nova Now" program the other night, where they had a short segment on Apophis. While <those who calculate such things> are quite sure Apophis won't strike the Earth in 2029, they are less certain about 2036. If I remember correctly, it is not possible at this time to exactly predict how the close pass to the Earth in 2029 will disturb Apophis' orbit.

The show went on to identify a rectangle in space. If Apophis passes through that box, it will come back to strike Earth 2036. The show even predicted that if Apophis hit the center of the box that it would strike the Earth in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. I'm not sure how much of this is hype (no probabilities of hitting the rectangle were given).

Still, it got me wondering if would seven years be enough time to mount an adequate defense if it looks like Apophis is on a collision course with our home planet on the second pass.

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