Apophis

Following NASA’s D.A.R.T. mission revelation that asteroid paths could be changed based on collisions, scientists went back to the drawing board to further confirm that Earth will be safe from a collision with the giant asteroid Apophis when it passes close to us in 2029.Scientists have already said multiple times that the chances of the asteroid slamming into Earth were extremely slim. And we’ve even had full-on confirmation that the orbit won’t cross paths directly with Earth, making us perfectly safe. But…

A few years ago, astronomers ruled out the chance of a potentially hazardous asteroid named Apophis redirecting and hitting Earth as it whizzes by.That's a huge relief. But we weren't entirely out of the woods. We've seen, thanks to the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, that it's possible to change the orbital course of an asteroid by smacking it with something.There are a lot of space rocks floating around out there in interplanetary space. What if one of them collided with Apophis? What if it knocked Apophis off its…

A decade ago, the Earth was struck by the Chelyabinsk asteroid over Russia's Ural region. The asteroid exploded above the city and created a shockwave affecting 1500 people and destroying over 7300 buildings. It served to create fear, but more than that, it sent all the space agencies back to the drawing board to prepare contingency plans for such an event that may have far worse consequences. The fear of asteroid strike is always swings there as it had wiped out the dinosaurs from the face of Earth millions of years…

Asteroid 99942 Apophis is fast approaching our home planet for an uncomfortably close encounter in 2029. In order to prepare for the rare event, NASA is calling for ideas for low cost missions to rendezvous with Apophis, but the space agency already has a pair of asteroid probes ready to take on the task.This is the Coolest Galaxy S24 AI Feature That Few Are Talking AboutNASA is hosting a workshop on Wednesday, February 7 “on innovative approaches to conduct missions during the Earth flyby of the asteroid Apophis in…

New mission, who dis? The spacecraft formerly known as OSIRIS-REx had an impromptu close encounter with the Sun as it follows a newly crafted route to a second asteroid, using one of its solar arrays for shade.Let’s Eat a Chocolate Xbox ControllerYou may remember NASA’s diligent spacecraft that snagged a sample from an asteroid and dropped it off in the Utah desert in September 2023. That same spacecraft is on a bonus mission to a different asteroid, but in order to get there, it’ll need to fly 25 million miles closer to…

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NASA has discovered thousands of asteroids to date using its advanced ground and space-based telescopes. The list of asteroids includes a potentially life-threatening asteroid called Bennu which has a 1/2700 chance of impacting Earth between 2175 and 2195. With such possibility looming, the US space agency carried out a study of the asteroid by landing a spacecraft on it and collecting dust and rock samples, which recently returned to Earth. Now, NASA has repurposed the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to study another potentially…

NASA's OSIRIS-APEX spacecraft, formerly known as OSIRIS-REx, is actively preparing for a groundbreaking solar approach, bringing it closer to the Sun than ever before as it targets the asteroid Apophis. The spacecraft's closest approach, referred to as perihelion, is set for January 2, 2024, positioning OSIRIS-APEX approximately 46.5 million miles away from the Sun. This distance is roughly half the span between Earth and the Sun and well within the orbit of Venus. NASA has highlighted that this close encounter will…

Asteroid Apophis is scheduled for a brief rendezvous with Earth and NASA is hoping to get a good view of the close encounter in order to prepare for potentially hazardous visits by other rocky bodies.Astronomers Could Soon Get Warnings When SpaceX Satellites Threaten Their ViewDuring the Planetary Defense Conference in Vienna, Austria, last week, Bhavya Lal, NASA’s associate administrator for technology, policy and strategy, revealed the space agency’s concept for using a swarm of spacecraft to capture images and data of…

Although asteroids often make close approaches to Earth, this happens at relatively safe distances of millions of kilometers. But this does not mean no asteroid is ever going to strike Earth. NASA and other space agencies have kept a watchful eye on a particular asteroid which was previously expected to hit Earth. Although it has now been determined it will not crash to the planet's surface, it will make an extremely close approach this decade, giving scientists a chance to study it. This is Asteroid Apophis…