How science prepares for asteroid Apophis’ close encounter with Earth

we are just five years An astronomical event that can be recorded in humanity’s collective memory. This is the asteroid’s closest pass to Earth Apophis And, although we already know that it will not be dangerous, we can say that it is dangerous chilling If we think about it well.

For decades the astronomical community’s eyes were focused on Earth’s encounter with the cataloged asteroid 99942 Apophis, a rocky object. 340 meter diameter, Although the threat of direct impact has been dismissed, there is still great interest in the meeting. The reason is that this asteroid will come close 13 April 2029just a little 32,000 km of our planet’s surface.

Although it is not currently on the list of potentially hazardous asteroids in NASA’s Sentry program, Apophis’s approach will Less than a tenth of the distance that separates us from the Moon, And, for the most superstitious, this will happen on Friday the 13th.

This asteroid will be closest to Earth completely visible to the naked eye, The brightness of the wandering star will reach stellar magnitude +3, which is near that of some stars in the Cassiopeia constellation or some stars in the famous Orion Belt. And, despite its “stellar” appearance, it would be impressive to see it rotating at a speed of about one moon’s diameter per minute.

NASA’s already famous Osiris-Rex mission is underway after visiting the asteroid Bennu and collecting samples. Due to its capabilities, it has been reconfigured to approach Apophis, and renamed Apophis. Osiris-Apex.

That space mission aims to quantify Earth’s tidal forces on a potentially hazardous asteroid and will take live, never-before-seen images of the asteroid’s surface with our planet in the background. NASA will provide photos at the same time we can head out into the garden to see the asteroid overhead.

There will be no need for a telescope or binoculars. More than 2 billion people in Western Europe and North Africa are expected to attend the upcoming encounter with Apophis, a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

At the time of writing these lines, the European Space Agency (ESA) is also considering launching a mission Ramses For visit Apophis before, during, and after the asteroid’s encounter with Earth. The mission, proposed in ESA’s Space Security Programme, would use the same platform planned for the Hera spacecraft and launch several CubeSat-type satellites to perform proximity measurements.

The RAMSES probe should be launched soon to meet Apophis before April 2029. Two possible configurations it is to launch in April 2027 And in April you will circle the earth 2028 To set your destination in April or undertake a more expensive and complex direct transfer lasting up to 11 months 2028,

If the ESA Council gives the green light to the mission, the most effective technical solution will be decided in 2025 to reduce costs and allow rapid implementation. possibly RAMSES may encounter Apophis two months before its closest approach to Earth and will conduct a characterization campaign on the asteroid before and after the encounter.

There is great interest in studying whether Apophis is a debris pile like Bennu and whether the asteroid’s physical identity and composition may be affected by gravitational tidal forces.

With the experience of the DART and Hera missions, the use of small satellites or CubeSats to collect proximity data is gaining strength. RAMSES is proposed to launch at least two CubeSats of six cubic units each, which will be launched into the vicinity of Apophis before the close encounter. In the chosen environment they will operate independently using RAMSES as a relay satellite.

Instrumentation will include a thermal infrared camera, laser altimeter, low frequency radar, dust detector, seismometer, indenters, microscope, radiometer, laser retroreflector, etc. This is a mission that has not been decided yet, but making it a reality at the time of the meeting will demonstrate that there are ways to launch this type of mission quickly. After all, maybe the next asteroid won’t warn us.

This is not a fad Better understand the nature and structure of Apophis, Although we can say that it does not pose any risk in the next ways, at least for a century, it could become complicated in the future.

Our planet’s close encounter with asteroid Apophis is a once-in-a-millennium opportunity. a media event that may occur Very useful for science, For planetary protection and expansion, Furthermore, the OSIRIS-APEX mission will give hope to the international cooperation we need to respond to the challenges that threaten humanity.

* Josep M. Trigo Rodríguez is Principal Investigator of the Meteorite, Small Body and Planetary Sciences Group at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC).

*This note is originally from Conversation.