Spacecraft will swarm asteroid Apophis during fateful 2029 Earth flyby
Multiple international space agencies are coordinating missions to observe the asteroid Apophis during its close Earth flyby in 2029. While initial fears of a collision have been debunked, the event serves as a rare scientific opportunity to study a near-Earth object.
Why it matters
This mission represents a significant milestone in international space cooperation and planetary defense preparedness.
Spacecraft will swarm asteroid Apophis during fateful 2029 Earth flyby Discovered in 2004 while traveling on an alarming potential collision course with our planet, the near-Earth asteroid Apophis is now better known as the best example yet of our world dodging a cosmic bullet.
Initial calculations suggested the roughly 340-meter-diameter rock had a one-in-37 chance of impacting Earth in 2029. Careful tracking, however, subsequently dropped those odds to zero. But Apophis's close approach in 2029 will still offer "a once-per-millennium natural experiment," said Massachusetts Institute of Technology planetary scientist Richard Binzel at a recent workshop. After years of uncertainty about how a near miss with a near-Earth asteroid actually plays out, major space agencies are now ready to watch, listen and learn with multiple missions to monitor the event.
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