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12/07/2005:

"It's called Apophis. It's 390m wide. And it could hit Earth in 31 years time"

In Egyptian myth, Apophis was the ancient spirit of evil and destruction, a demon that was determined to plunge the world into eternal darkness.

A fitting name, astronomers reasoned, for a menace now hurtling towards Earth from outerspace. Scientists are monitoring the progress of a 390-metre wide asteroid discovered last year that is potentially on a collision course with the planet, and are imploring governments to decide on a strategy for dealing with it.

Nasa has estimated that an impact from Apophis, which has an outside chance of hitting the Earth in 2036, would release more than 100,000 times the energy released in the nuclear blast over Hiroshima. Thousands of square kilometres would be directly affected by the blast but the whole of the Earth would see the effects of the dust released into the atmosphere.
guardian.co.uk

Apophis is not a 'demon' or the 'spirit of evil'. Apophis is the great serpent through which souls who are seeking union with the divine must pass. So really, the vehicle of purification. Not being Christian/apocalyptic here, it's just interesting and ironic.