Learn how Apophis will play a significant role as ESA prepares for an asteroid impact.
Ten years ago, the Chelyabinsk asteroid collided with the Earth in Russia’s Ural region. Exploding above the city, it caused a shockwave that affected 1500 individuals and destroyed over 7300 buildings. This event not only instilled fear but also prompted space agencies to reassess their strategies and develop contingency plans for potential future occurrences with even more severe consequences. The fear of asteroid impacts persists due to the historical extinction of dinosaurs millions of years ago. In response, the United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space established two international entities, namely the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN) and the Space Mission Planning Advisory Group (SMPAG), to comprehensively investigate the risks associated with asteroid strikes and coordinate global responses. To learn more about these organizations, click here.
How to study an asteroid impact and impact
IAWN and SMPAG will complete the 10-year study in 2024. According to the ESA report, IAWN is managed by NASA and specializes in observing and finding dangerous asteroids in space. IAWN then assesses the timing, location and potential impact of asteroids approaching Earth. It will then share the collected information with SMPAG and national governments “about the asteroid needed for reactive space mission planning and civil disaster preparedness and response agencies,” ESA said.
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ESA leads SMPAG, which brings together space agencies worldwide to coordinate Earth’s space-based response to threats. It further analyzes how space missions can explore, deflect or destroy asteroids that are 50 meters wide. Now, the biggest discussion among these pieces is about the asteroid “Apophis”, which is said to be 350 meters wide and may fly by the Earth on April 13, 2029. However, the asteroid does not pose a threat, but an opportunity for organizations to study “a large asteroid up close with a satellite mission”
ESA will launch the Hera mission in October 2024 to gain further insights from NASA’s successful DART mission demonstration of kinetic impactor technology to deflect asteroids. However, this can only be done once the asteroid has been detected and the Minor Planet Center is keeping a close eye on the near-Earth objects.
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