In recent months, many media outlets, including this one, have dedicated articles and coverage to Apophisan asteroid that will pass close to Earth (just over 30,000 kilometers) in 2029.
According to the European Space Agency (ESA), the event will be “one of the rarest space events of our lifetimes”. The reason is exhaustive: “Scientists believe that an asteroid as large as Apophis only comes this close to Earth once every 5,000 to 10,000 years,” the agency notes.
Discovered on June 19, 2004 at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in the USA, It was estimated that its risk of collision in 2029 was 2.7%.a percentage that, although low, aroused some fear because it is not common for astronomers’ projections to yield such a high figure in this type of calculation. Since 2021, however, the probability of impact over the next hundred years has been defined as zero.
The event is also significant because it is a object larger than 90% of known near-Earth asteroidswith a diameter of 375 meters, the equivalent of three times the length of a football field.
At its closest point to the Earth’s surface, the April 13, 2029 at 11:45 p.m. Spanish time, Apophis will fly over the planet 31,600 kilometers above the Atlantic Ocean, so, according to ESA, it will be closer to our heads than to satellites in geostationary orbit. That night, Apophis will be visible to about 2 billion observers in different parts of Europe, Africa and Asia. If the sky is clear, it will be bright enough to be seen with the naked eye for a couple of hours.”
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Kindelan
After its Earth flyby, the asteroid will pass within 94,000 kilometers from the Moonalso without the possibility of collision.
The event will be useful scientifically: “Earth’s gravity will stretch and compress Apophis, causing landslides and revealing a lot about the asteroid’s material, structure, density and cohesion. This knowledge will help us protect Earth in the future,” says ESA. In addition, NASA will take advantage of the approach to send a probe to study it, the mission OSIRIS-APEx. In parallel, the ESA also plans a similar action.
Although the asteroid will return in 2044it won’t get as close as it will in five years.
