The European Space Agency is preparing a mission to observe an asteroid that will pass by Earth in five years

A huge asteroid is set to pass within 32,000 kilometres of Earth in five years. The European Space Agency plans to take advantage of the opportunity to observe the rocky mass up close and protect our planet.

The ESA, the European Space Agency, is launching a mission on Tuesday, July 16, to examine the asteroid Apophis, which will pass close to Earth in just under five years, on April 13, 2029 to be precise. An event eagerly awaited by astronomers, since it is the first time that they can anticipate the passage of an asteroid of this size, nearly 350 meters in wingspan.

Named RAMSES, this mission is in line with DART, a probe which crashed into the asteroid Dimorphos to deflect its trajectory, in the manner of the film Armageddon. For Apophis, in 2029, it will be a little different since the European Space Agency does not foresee a collision. It proposes, however, to send a probe to approach as closely as possible this mass of rock of more than 350 meters in wingspan. An asteroid of this size, if it hit the Earth, would cause considerable damage, but Apophis was recently removed from the list of risk phenomena.

“There is so much we still have to learn from asteroids, explains Patrick Michel, research director at the CNRS at the Côte d’Azur Observatory. Until now, we had to go very far into the solar system to study them. […] For the first time, nature brings us one. All we have to do is observe how Apophis is stretched and deformed by the Earth’s gravity.”, the scientist rejoices.

Apophis will then be ten times closer to Earth than the Moon, closer than some satellites and even visible to the naked eye from our planet. For scientists, this is an opportunity not to be missed to learn more about these celestial objects, especially since a phenomenon of this kind can only occur every 5,000 to 10,000 years.

For the probe to reach the site on time, it will have to be launched in April 2028.