• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

NASA And ESA Prepare For Close Approach Of Near Earth Object Apophis

May 3, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are preparing for the close approach of near-Earth object, asteroid 99942 Apophis. 

Advertisement

In 2029, Apophis – believed to be one of the most hazardous asteroids to Earth when it was first discovered in 2004 – will come within 32,000 kilometers (20,000 miles) of the Earth’s surface, giving scientists the opportunity to study the object up close. Closer than some of our artificial satellites, the asteroid should be visible from the Eastern Hemisphere without the aid of a telescope or binoculars.

Advertisement
Animation showing Apophis's close approach to the Earth.

During the approach, Apophis will be influenced by Earth’s gravity.

Image credit: ESA

Five years ahead of the close approach, scientists have been proposing potential missions to study the asteroid at the Apophis T-5 Years: Knowledge Opportunity for the Science of Planetary Defense workshop organized by ESA.

NASA already has one visit to the asteroid planned, dubbed OSIRIS APEX. The mission will repurpose the asteroid sampler formerly known as OSIRIS-REx, sending it to greet the asteroid shortly after its flyby.

“Our planet’s gravitational pull is expected to alter the asteroid’s orbit, change how and how fast it spins on its axis, and possibly cause quakes or landslides that will alter its surface,” NASA explains of their planned mission. “OSIRIS-APEX will allow scientists on Earth to observe these changes. Additionally, the OSIRIS-APEX spacecraft will dip toward the surface of Apophis ­– a ‘stony’ asteroid made of silicate (or rocky) material and a mixture of metallic nickel and iron ­ – and fire its engines to kick up loose rocks and dust. This maneuver will give scientists a peek at the composition of material just below the asteroid’s surface.”



Advertisement

At the ESA meeting, private companies proposed other missions to the asteroid, Space News reports. 

Blue Origin’s idea is to use its Blue Ring spacecraft to deliver up to 13 payloads totaling up to 2 metric tons to the asteroid, launching in 2027 and approaching the asteroid shortly before its closest approach to Earth. Meanwhile, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory outlined its Distributed Radar Observations of Interior Distributions (DROID) mission. 

“DROID’s architecture calls for a dedicated launch of three spacecraft: an ESPA Grande-class Mothership and two CubeSats,” JPL explains in a proposal. “The Mothership carries the CubeSats to Apophis, achieves the rendezvous cruise trajectory, performs high resolution imaging with a narrow-angle camera, and acts as a Direct-to-Earth (DTE) node for the constellation. Once Apophis’s physical characteristics (shape, spin, gravity field) are characterized sufficiently the Mothership deploys both CubeSats, which each carry a wide-angle camera and low-frequency radar (60 MHz, based on JuRa) and insert themselves into coordinated low orbits to perform monostatic and bistatic radar observations.”

While it is hoped that the flyby will help us learn more about planetary defense from such objects, there is nothing to fear from Apophis. 

Advertisement

In 2021, Apophis made a flyby of Earth, at which point astronomers made powerful radar observations in order to better define its orbit. Before that, NASA believed that it had a chance of impact later in the century, but the observations ruled that out.

“A 2068 impact is not in the realm of possibility anymore,” Davide Farnocchia of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies said of the asteroid, “and our calculations don’t show any impact risk for at least the next 100 years.”

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Cricket-NZ players reach Dubai after ‘specific, credible threat’ derailed Pakistan tour
  2. Soccer-Liverpool’s Alexander-Arnold ruled out of Man City game
  3. What Are Baby Platypuses Called?
  4. Should You Wash Chicken Before Cooking It?

Source Link: NASA And ESA Prepare For Close Approach Of Near Earth Object Apophis

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • The First Ever Full Asteroid History: From Its Doomed Discovery To Collecting Its Meteorites
  • World’s Oldest Pachycephalosaur Fossil Pushes Back These Dinosaurs’ Emergence By 15 Million Years
  • The Hole In The Ozone Layer Is Healing And On Track For Full Recovery In The 21st Century, Thanks To Science
  • First Sweet Potato Genome Reveals They’re Hybrids With A Puzzling Past And 6 Sets Of Chromosomes
  • Why Is The Top Of Canada So Sparsely Populated? Meet The “Canadian Shield”
  • Humans Are In The Middle Of “A Great Evolutionary Transition”, New Paper Claims
  • Why Do Some Toilets Have Two Flush Buttons?
  • 130-Year-Old Butter Additive Discovered In Danish Basement Contains Bacteria From The 1890s
  • Prehistoric Humans Made Necklaces From Marine Mollusk Fossils 20,000 Years Ago
  • Zond 5: In 1968 Two Soviet Steppe Tortoises Beat Humans To Orbiting Around The Moon
  • Why Cats Adapted This Defense Mechanism From Snakes
  • Mother Orca Seen Carrying Dead Calf Once Again On Washington Coast
  • A Busy Spider Season Is Brewing: Why This Fall Could See A Boom Of Arachnid Activity
  • What Alternatives Are There To The Big Bang Model?
  • Magnetic Flip Seen Around First Photographed Black Hole Pushes “Models To The Limit”
  • Something Out Of Nothing: New Approach Mimics Matter Creation Using Superfluid Helium
  • Surströmming: Why Sweden’s Stinky Fermented Fish Smells So Bad (But People Still Eat It)
  • First-Ever Recording Of Black Hole Recoil Captured During Merger – And You Can Listen To It
  • The Moon Is Moving Away From Earth At A Rate Of About 3.8 Centimeters Per Year. Will It Ever Drift Apart?
  • As Solar Storm Hits Earth NASA Finds “The Sun Is Slowly Waking Up”
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version