2029 Target For OSIRIS APEX: Asteroid "Apophis" -- As It Gets Warped By Earth's Gravity, Only ~20,000 Miles Out.

The extended OSIRIS-REx mission has been redubbed as OSIRIS-Apex. That is a bow to its next target, Apophis -- a small asteroid, mostly made of silicates (as opposed to carbons, as Bennu is, when studied by the sample return mission in the masthead).

While it only makes a close approach every 7,500 years, Apophis will slide by -- very near Earth in 2029. The dip will place it closer that some of our spacecrafts/satellites, at only about ~20,000 miles away. So, it is likely to be warped and shifted, by the tug of Earth's gravity. OSIRIS will document it all, for us. Here's the latest, from NASA:

. . .“OSIRIS-APEX will study Apophis immediately after such a pass, allowing us to see how its surface changes by interacting with Earth’s gravity,” said Amy Simon, the mission’s project scientist based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Apophis’ close encounter with Earth will change the asteroid’s orbit and the length of its 30.6-hour day. The encounter also may cause quakes and landslides on the asteroid’s surface that could churn up material and uncover what lies beneath.

“The close approach is a great natural experiment,” said Dani Mendoza DellaGiustina, principal investigator for OSIRIS-APEX at the University of Arizona in Tucson. “We know that tidal forces and the accumulation of rubble pile material are foundational processes that could play a role in planet formation. They could inform how we got from debris in the early solar system to full-blown planets. . . .”

Now you know -- closer and closer encounters, to the holidays, as well. Everybody off planes, by 7 pm tonight! Woot!

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