NASA wants to reach asteroid Apophis

SGGP 04/21/2023 09:23

The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said it has plans to approach Apophis - an asteroid that could come very close to Earth in 2029 and 2036.

OSIRIS-REx spacecraft

According to NASA, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will be redirected to study and explore Apophis after reaching the asteroid Bennu in September 2023. OSIRIS-REx will be renamed OSIRIS-APophis EXplorer or OSIRIS-APEX, with the mission to reach Apophis when the asteroid is close to Earth. NASA plans to use the same navigation technology as the DART mission, causing the spacecraft to collide with an asteroid to change its orbit. According to NASA, this is part of a planetary defense technology test. International space agencies may also send an international fleet of spacecraft to asteroid Apophis to join the exploration.

Asteroid Apophis was first discovered in 2004 by astronomers at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in the United States. Ranked by NASA as one of Earth's greatest threats, the asteroid is 340m long, the length of three football fields, and weighs 27 million tonnes. If it were to collide with Earth, it would cause an explosion equivalent to 880 million tonnes of TNT. This power could destroy a medium-sized country.

Previously, scientists believed that there was almost no chance of Apophis colliding with Earth. However, later calculations showed that the asteroid changed its orbit due to a physical phenomenon, causing it to tend towards Earth.

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/nasa-muon-tiep-can-tieu-hanh-tinh-apophis-post686602.html