Collision alert: Asteroid Apophis could hit Earth in 2029, European Space Agency races to prepare defense mission

The European Space Agency (ESA) is making significant progress in its efforts to rendezvous with an asteroid that will closely approach Earth in 2029.  

The mission, known as the Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety (Ramses), is in a race against time. It must launch by early 2028 to closely study the asteroid Apophis when it passes Earth on April 13, 2029.  

This planetary defence mission aims to investigate Apophis’s composition, structure, and the impact of Earth's tidal forces on the asteroid. 

A recent study highlights a slim but often overlooked risk that the asteroid Apophis could collide with Earth during its close approach in 2029.  

Apophis, a peanut-shaped space rock measuring 1,230 feet (375 meters) across, is comparable in size to the Eiffel Tower. While it is not considered a “planet killer”, it is large enough to destroy a major city and cause global climatic effects. 

Discovered in 2004, Apophis is classified as a “potentially hazardous” object. It was named after Apep, the Egyptian serpent god of darkness and disorder, earning it the nickname “God of Chaos”. As it approaches Earth, the asteroid will move within geostationary orbit and be visible to the naked eye. 

Astronomers have indicated that Apophis will safely pass Earth at a distance of less than 20,000 miles (32,000 km), which is less than one-tenth of the distance between Earth and the moon, according to NASA. However, this proximity is close enough to potentially affect some of the furthest Earth-orbiting satellites. 

Ramses is not the only mission that may visit Apophis. NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which previously collected samples from the asteroid Bennu, is on an extended mission called OSIRIS-APEX and is expected to arrive at Apophis about a month after its flyby of Earth. 

OSIRIS-REx and Ramses, along with missions like Hera and NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), exemplify how space agencies are collaborating to develop planetary defence capabilities. 

Large asteroids like Apophis can be deflected by impacts from smaller asteroids, akin to NASA's DART mission, which successfully redirected the asteroid Dimorphos by crashing a spacecraft into it in 2022.