UA spacecraft eyes asteroid Apophis in rare 2029 flyby
UA spacecraft eyes asteroid Apophis in rare 2029 flyby.
A NASA spacecraft is on course to witness a rare celestial event when the asteroid Apophis passes within about 20,000 miles of Earth's surface on April 13, 2029, closer than satellites carrying TV broadcasts and satellite images.
APEX, which previously flew as OSIRIS-REx and brought a sample of the asteroid Bennu back to Earth in September 2023, is expected to reach Apophis in late spring of 2029, according to the University of Arizona.
An asteroid this size comes so close to Earth only once about every 7,500 years.
Dani Mendoza DellaGiustina, associate professor at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and the principal investigator of OSIRIS-APEX, said the spacecraft will capture images of the asteroid sliding past the side of Earth where night has fallen, over Europe and northern Africa.
Millions of people will be able to watch it with their own eyes.
The team is currently writing commands the spacecraft will follow when it swings past Earth next March.
That flyby is one of several gravity assists built into the mission's route, in which the spacecraft passes close to Earth and borrows some of our planet's energy to reshape its own path around the sun.
The last flyby in September 2025 gave the team a chance to point the instruments to Earth.
DellaGiustina said the team has made a significant discovery in the data collected during the 2025 flyby.