When will the asteroid Apophis pass close to Earth – and it’s bigger than the Eiffel Tower?

a asteroid It is expected to pass through larger than the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Land In 2029, with scientists so far expressing concern about the potential impact on our planet.

They hope that this assessment will be verified with the Ramses mission.

According to the European Space Agency, a spacecraft will travel to the asteroid.ApophisTo gather information about its size, shape, mass, and how it rotates.

This mission is also expected to shed light on its composition and internal structure. ApophisIn addition to its orbit, it will study changes to the asteroid as it passes within 32,000 kilometers of Earth, about one-tenth the distance from the Moon, on Friday, April 13, 2029.

No asteroid will come this close to Earth in the next few thousand years.

“An asteroid is not expected to come this close to Earth in the next few thousand years,” said Dr Holger Krag, head of the European Space Agency’s Space Safety Programme Office, adding that “if the sky is clear, it will be visible to the naked eye.”

Apophis is expected to begin interacting with Earth as it moves away from our planet. guardian.

“Earth’s gravitational field will reshape the asteroid slightly, causing it to change shape,” he said, adding that the gravitational pull could also cause landslides on the asteroid’s surface.

Apophis wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

An asteroid like Apophis “has a chance of one day hitting the planet and causing major destruction. We think this happened 65 million years ago, when dinosaur“The Open University Professor Monica Grady said,”

“If it were a big asteroid and it hit us, it would be a catastrophe that would tear humanity apart.”

Since its discovery in 2004, Apophis has kept scientists up at night with fears that it might collide with Earth as it orbits the sun. While NASA has ruled out a collision as Apophis approaches Earth in 2029 and 2036, experts say an impact is unlikely for at least the next 100 years.

NASA’s Osiris-Rex is under investigation

The Ramesses mission isn’t the only one preparing to investigate Apophis. Following NASA’s successful Osiris-Rex mission last year, which discovered 4.6-billion-year-old pieces of space rock from the asteroid Bennu, the same spacecraft will visit Apophis in 2029 with a new mission title, Osiris-Apex.

While Ramses will reach Apophis before approaching Earth, Osiris-Apex is expected to arrive later.