Exactly five years from now, a potentially hazardous asteroid will come dangerously close to our planet. The asteroid Apophis, named after the Egyptian deity of chaos, will zoom past Earth just 32,000 km from the surface, offering scientists a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study this ancient relic of the solar system.
According to estimates by NASA, the flyby will occur on April 13, 2029 and it is likely to change the characteristics of the space rock.
On 13 April 2029, the 375-metre asteroid Apophis will safely whizz by Earth, passing closer to the surface than satellites in geostationary orbit. The flyby of Apophis offers a truly unique opportunity to learn more about asteroids and how to protect Earth.… pic.twitter.com/3n7u6slMBm
— ESA Operations (@esaoperations) April 14, 2025
What to know about Apophis
Apophis was discovered in 2004 and initial observations suggested that it may impact Earth in 2029, 2036, or 2068, says NASA. The asteroid measures about 1,115 feet or 340 meters in diameter which places it in the ‘potentially hazardous’ category.
It is believed to have formed 4.6 billion years ago and scientists think it emerged from leftover raw materials that were neither part of a planet or a moon. Asteroids are fascinating because they are ancient relics from the early solar system. Even after billions of years, they remain largely unchanged, preserving the original building blocks of our planetary system.
The 2029 flyby
The 2029 flyby is going to be super interesting because an asteroid this big has such close flyby with Earth only every few thousand years on average. Besides, this is likely to be the first time we will witness such an event in recorded human history. As for Apophis, it might undergo drastic changes during its encounter with Earth. Scientists predict it will be pulled, twisted, stretched, and squeezed by the gravity of Earth, and the gravitational influence will change Apophis’s orbit around the Sun.
Besides, Earth’s gravity may also change the asteroid’s spin (make it fast or slow) and change its orientation. Small landslides and quakes due to the stretching and squeezing is also a possibility. Astronomers hope to figure out what is going on inside the asteroid by noticing these changes.
Interestingly, all these changes will be studied up close by NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX spacecraft and ESA’s Ramses mission. While OSIRIS-APEX, which is already in space, will be redirected to Apophis, Ramses will launch in April 2028 to rendezvous with the asteroid in February 2029, two months before the Earth flyby.
ESA says Ramses will conduct a thorough before-and-after survey of Apophis’s shape, surface, orbit, rotation and orientation that could help unveil the asteroid’s composition, interior structure, cohesion, mass, density, and porosity.
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