The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced a mission to study the asteroid Apophis during its close approach to Earth in 2029.
Following NASA, ESA becomes the second major space agency to commit to a mission focused on Apophis, which was once thought to be on a collision course with Earth. In 2029, Apophis will pass within 32,000 km of Earth, offering a unique opportunity for space agencies to observe it up close. According to ESA, an asteroid of this size approaches Earth this closely only once every 5,000 to 10,000 years.
ESA’s statement on Apophis
“ESA’s Space Safety programme has received permission to begin preparatory work for its next planetary defence mission – the Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety (Ramses),” ESA said in a statement last week.
Before Apophis reaches its closest approach to Earth, the Ramses spacecraft will approach the asteroid, which is approximately 375 meters wide, and track its path for a period of time. This mission will be similar to the one planned for NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX spacecraft.
Recently, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced its intention to launch a mission to Apophis. Chairman S. Somanath emphasized the importance of ISRO’s participation, stating that it is crucial to “go and meet the asteroid” during its close approach to Earth.
Studying asteroids is vital for developing technologies to protect Earth from potential collisions. In 2022, NASA’s DART mission demonstrated this capability for the first time by successfully altering the trajectory of a distant asteroid through a direct impact. Although the asteroid posed no immediate threat, the mission proved that such maneuvers could be effective in more realistic scenarios.
ESA plans to study how Earth’s gravity affects the physical characteristics of Apophis as it approaches. “Their findings will improve our ability to defend our planet from any similar object found to be on a collision course in the future,” it said.
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There is still so much we have yet to learn about asteroids, but, until now, we have had to travel deep into the Solar System to study them and perform experiments ourselves to interact with their surface,” said Patrick Michel, the director of research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).
“For the first time ever, nature is bringing one to us, and conducting the experiment itself. All we need to do is watch as Apophis is stretched and squeezed by strong tidal forces that may trigger landslides and other disturbances and reveal new material from beneath the surface,” Michel said.
In April 2028, ESA said the Ramses spacecraft would need to be launched for it to reach the designated location in February 2029, two months before Apophis makes its close approach.
“Using a suite of scientific instruments, the spacecraft will conduct a thorough before-and-after survey of the asteroid’s shape, surface, orbit, rotation, and orientation. By analysing how Apophis changes during the flyby, scientists will learn a lot about the response of an asteroid to external forces as well as asteroid composition, interior structure, cohesion, mass, density, and porosity. These are all very important properties for assessing how best to knock a hazardous asteroid off a collision course with Earth. As asteroids are also time capsules formed over four billion years ago, data from Ramses will also offer new scientific insights into the formation and evolution of the Solar System,” the ESA statement said.
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