Has Apophis always been orbiting the sun the way it is now? If so why hasn't it hit us before?

Question

Look at this website if you don't believe me.

http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=99942;orb=1

For example look at the month of April 1812. It's like on top of it.

Look at April 1-7, 1812.

Answer 1

Yes, according to JPL's Applet, Apophis' nearest approach was 0.0035 a.u. in April, 1812. That's about 325,500 miles, still outside the orbit of the Moon. If the Applet is accurate, modern perigees can't even be considered near misses. JPL does include this caveat, however:
"This applet is provided as a 3D orbit visualization tool. The applet was implemented using 2-body methods, and hence should not be used for determining accurate long-term trajectories (over several years or decades) or planetary encounter circumstances."
Note, too, that Apophis' orbit has another Earth orbit crossing and 2 Venus orbit crossings, all of which will cause perturbations when the planets are near the crossing points.

So, no, Apophis has not always orbited the Sun the way it does now, and its orbit will change appreciably in the future.

Answer 2

The scientific answer is: Because it hasn't. Humanity was pretty-much unaware of any near-miss opportunities back then, don't you think?

How Apophis has been orbiting is, well, historical and well before the computer age when models could start predicting the possibilities of collision, don't you think?

So I find your question "Why hasn't it hit us before?" wishfully insane. Would you want it that way? A planet-killer to wipe out all higher life-forms and start over with worms, grubs and microbes?

Can't we be glad that we now know that there is a one in 45,000 chance that the "magic keyhole" could be passed through in 2029 and Apophis come to greet us and "reap" us in 2036?

Think you need more research. Check out what the UN's presently doing to get the entire world on the NEO program for this one.

Answer 3

everything is moving around in space, most asteroids are in stable orbits around the sun. apophis is not one of those, its orbit takes it too close to some planets for it to be stable. each close call with a planet affects its orbit.