by When you make a purchase through links on our article, Future and its syndicate partners may earn a commission.
The European Space Agency is fast-tracking a new mission called Ramses, which will fly to a near-Earth asteroid 99942 Apophis and join the space rock in 2029 when it comes very close to our planet – even closer than the region where geosynchronous satellites sit.
Ramses is short for Apophis Rapid Space Safety Mission and, as the name suggests, is the next step in humanity’s efforts to learn more about asteroids near Earth (NEOs) and how we do it could deviate one should be found on a collision course with the planet World.
To launch it in time to meet Apophis in February 2029, scientists at the European Space Agency have been allowed to begin planning Ramses even before the multinational space agency officially takes over the mission. The funding for the Ramses mission is expected to be approved and appropriated at a meeting of the GES Ministerial Council (which will include representatives from each of the GES Member States) in November 2025. To reach Apophis in February 2029, the launch would need to take place in April. 2028, says the agency.
This is a big deal because of a big asteroids don’t come this close to Earth very often. It is scientifically valuable that on April 13, 2029, Apophis will pass within 19,794 miles (31,860 kilometers) of Earth. For comparison, geosynchronous orbit is 22,236 miles (35,786 km) above the Earth’s surface. Such close asteroids hundreds of meters across (Apophis is about 1,230 feet, or 375 meters across) only occur on average once every 5,000 to 10,000 years. This one lost, and we have a long time to wait for the next one.
Related: 2 asteroids just zipped by Earth, and NASA captured footage of the action
When Apophis was discovered in 2004, it was for a short time the most dangerous asteroid identified, and was classified as potentially impacting Earth in 2029, 2036, or 2068. If an asteroid of its size hits the Earth, it could gouge out a crater several kilometers across and destroy a country with shock waves, flash heat and an earthquake. If it fell into the ocean, it could send high tsunamis to destroy the coasts of various countries.
Over time, however, as our knowledge of Apophis’ orbit became more refined, the risk of the impact decreased dramatically. Radar observations The asteroid in March 2021 reduced the uncertainty in Apophis’ orbit from hundreds of kilometers to a few kilometers, eliminating any lingering concerns about an impact – at least for the next 100 years. (Beyond 100 years, asteroid orbits may become too predictable to plot with any accuracy, but there is currently no suggestion that an impact will occur after 100 years.) So, hopefully, Earth will be safe completely in 2029 when Apophis comes through. Still, scientists want to see how Apophis responds by coming so close to Earth and entering our planet’s gravitational field.
“We still have so much to learn about asteroids but, until now, we have had to travel deep into the Solar system study them and conduct experiments ourselves to interact with their surface,” said Patrick Michel, who is Director of Research at CNRS at the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur in Nice, France, in a statement. “Nature has give us one. and carry out the experiment itself. All we have to do is watch as Apophis is stretched and pushed by strong tidal forces that could trigger landslides and other disturbances and reveal new material beneath the surface.”
By arriving at Apophis before the asteroid’s close encounter with Earth, and sticking with it throughout the flyby and beyond, Ramses will be in an excellent position to conduct surveys before and after to see how Apophis reacts to Earth. By looking for disturbances that trigger Earth’s tidal gravitational forces on the asteroid’s surface, Ramses will be able to learn about the internal structure, density, porosity and composition of Apophis, all of which are characteristics that we need to understand first before considering the best way to deflect. A similar asteroid has never been found that was on a collision course with our world.
In addition to helping protect Earth, learning about Apophis will give scientists additional insight into how similar asteroids formed in the early solar system, and, in the process, how planets (including Earth) formed from the same material.
One way we already know Earth will affect Apophis is by changing its orbit. Currently, Apophis is categorized as an Aten-type asteroid, which is what we call the class of near-Earth objects that have shorter orbits around the sun than Earth does. Currently Apophis gets as far as 0.92 astronomical units (137.6 million km, or 85.5 million miles) from the sun. However, our planet will give Apophis a gravitational node that will increase its orbit to 1.1 astronomical units (164.6 million km, or 102 million miles), so that its orbital period will become longer than that of Earth.
It will then be classified as an Apollo-type asteroid.
Ramses will not be alone in tracking down Apophis. NASA has theirs The OSIRIS-REx missionwho brought back a sample from another near-Earth asteroid, 101955 Whiteningin 2023. However, the spacecraft was renamed OSIRIS-APEX (Apophis Explorer), the asteroid will not arrive until April 23, 2029, ten days after the close encounter with Earth. OSIRIS-APEX will first flyby Apophis about 2,500 miles (4,000 km) from the object, then return in June of that year to settle into orbit around Apophis for an 18-month mission.
Related Stories:
— Asteroid ‘God of Destruction’ will hit Earth in 2029 — and could accommodate a tiny spacecraft
— How NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX asteroid probe survived its 1st close encounter with the sun
— Car-sized asteroid gives Earth a close-up in near-miss flight (video, photo)
In addition, the European Space Agency plans to launch its own Hera spaceship in October 2024 to follow up on the DART mission to the double asteroid Didymos and Dimorphos. DART influenced the latter in testing the capabilities of a kinetic impactor to change the orbit of a hazardous asteroid around our planet. Hera will survey the binary asteroid system and look at the crater that sacrificed DART to better understand the post-impact structure and composition of Dimorphos, so we can put the results into context.
The more near-Earth asteroids like Dimorphos and Apophis we study, the more that context becomes. Perhaps, one day, the understanding we have gained from these missions will save our planet.
