Asteroid the size of the Acropolis will fly past "two steps away" from the earth

In 2029, an asteroid more than 300 meters long will fly past Earth – an event that scientists until recently feared could herald a catastrophic collision.

Researchers now hope to study 99942 Apophis as it flies past to bolster our planet's defenses against other space rocks. The European Space Agency (Esa) has announced funding for the Apophis Mission for Security and Safety (Ramses), a fast-track mission that will send a spacecraft to the asteroid to gather information about its size, shape, mass and the way it spins as it moves through space.

The mission will shed light on Apophis's composition and interior structure, as well as its orbit, and study how the asteroid will change as it passes at a distance. 32,000 kilometers from Earth – about a tenth of the distance to the Moon – on Friday, April 13, 2029 (so don't believe in dates).

“The asteroid's flight to Earth is absolutely unique”“We are not expecting any asteroids to come this close for several thousand years,” said Dr Holger Kragh, head of Esa's Space Safety Programme, adding that no asteroid is expected to come this close for several thousand years. “Apophis will pass closer to Earth than geostationary satellites used for television broadcasting, GPS navigation and weather forecasting. At that distance, the asteroid will begin to interact with Earth, Krag said. “Earth's gravitational field will slightly alter the shape of the asteroid, causing it to change,” – he said, adding that “gravitational pull could also cause landslides on the asteroid's surface”.

According to Krag, the data obtained with the help of “Ramses”will help scientists better understand the asteroid and the dangers posed by such space rocks. “Our goal in planetary defense is not to do science about asteroids, but to characterize them so that one day we can deflect them when they become dangerous,” – he said.

This image, created in 2024 by ESA's Flyby Visualisation Instrument, shows the trajectory of asteroid 99942 Apophis as it approaches Earth in April 2029, passing within 32,000 km of its surface.

Professor Monica Grady, from the Open University, says while most asteroids are in fairly safe orbits and do not come too close to our planet, Earth-crossing asteroids such as Apophis are a different matter. “They are approaching the Earth, and there is a possibility that one day one of them will crash into the Earth and cause a major catastrophe. We think this happened 65 million years ago, when all the dinosaurs disappeared.– he said. “And if it is a large asteroid and it hits us, it will be a catastrophe that will destroy humanity.”

Since its discovery in 2004, Apophis has kept scientists up at night over concerns that it could collide with Earth as it orbits the sun. Although NASA has ruled out the possibility of Apophis hitting Earth in 2029 and 2036, it wasn’t until 2021 that experts said a collision was out of the question for at least the next 100 years. However, space agencies aren’t leaving the planet’s safety to chance, instead exploring ways to deal with asteroids headed toward Earth.

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