A huge asteroid will be heading close to our planet in five years. The upcoming event will fall on a Friday the 13th. Read on to know if there's a cause for concern.
Asteroid Apophis Making a Flyby of Earth in April 2029
On April 13, 2029 -- a Friday -- a 1,000-foot-wide (305-meter-wide) asteroid named after the Egyptian god of chaos and destruction, Apophis, will make its closest approach to Earth. It will travel within 30,000 miles (48,300 kilometers) of our planet.
Scientists plan to make the uncommon near encounter of a space asteroid this size count. It will become so noticeable over our planet during the flyby that it may be seen with the unaided eye.
The OSIRIS-APEX mission, formerly known as OSIRIS-REx, is scheduled to rendezvous with the near-Earth asteroid (NEA) up close. However, if all goes according to plan, numerous small satellites may join that NASA mission during its rendezvous.
Three proposals for spacecraft have been revealed by a team from Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU), headed by space engineer Hakan Kayal, under the auspicious "NEAlight" project. Since Earth only encounters this asteroid passage once every century, all proposed satellites will try to take advantage of it.
The goal of the mission is to gather information that could aid in the creation of defenses against potentially hazardous asteroids and help scientists get a deeper understanding of the solar system.
The asteroid swiftly shot to the top of tables, indicating the risk associated with so-called potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) or space rocks at least 460 feet (140 meters) wide or within 20 lunar distances of Earth. Apophis remained at the top of both NASA's Sentry Risk Table and the European Space Agency's (ESA) "impact risk list" of PHAs for 17 years due to its size and the proximity of Earth to Earth that its route brings it.
That was before NASA scientists were able to ascertain that Apophis won't actually impact Earth for at least 100 years following a close pass of the space rock in March 2021. Apophis is almost as wide as the Empire State Building's height.
Even if Apophis will not hit Earth in the coming century, its impact on science in 2029 will be enormous, and space agencies from all around the world will be attentively monitoring its course.
About Apophis
Asteroid 99942 Apophis is a near-Earth object (NEO) about 1,100 feet (335 meters) across. It was considered one of the most dangerous asteroids that could affect Earth when it was discovered in 2004. However, once astronomers tracked Apophis and improved the determination of its orbit, that impact assessment was revised. After conducting a radar surveillance campaign in March 2021 and utilizing precise orbit analysis, scientists have determined there is no chance of Apophis colliding with Earth for at least a century.
Astronomers had the chance to update the calculation of Apophis' orbit around the Sun with exceptional precision during a distant flyby of Earth around March 5, 2021. Their radar observations allowed them to confidently rule out any collision risk in 2068 and long after.
According to Davide Farnocchia of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), which is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, their estimates indicate that there is no longer any chance of an impact in 2068 and that there won't be any for at least the following 100 years.
The uncertainty surrounding Apophis' orbit has decreased from hundreds of kilometers to a few kilometers when more radar data and current optical observations are considered. This reduction is evident in the orbital uncertainty projected through 2029.
Thus, they decided to remove Apophis from the risk list since their enhanced understanding of its position in 2029 gives them more confidence about how it will move in the future.
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