Why ISRO wants to venture into planetary defense

• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) should be able to go and meet” the asteroid Apophis when it passes by Earth at a distance of 32,000 km in 2029.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

• The Indian space agency might send its own spacecraft, or collaborate with other space agencies.
• A mission to study an asteroid would be the first step towards building a programme aimed at preventing celestial bodies from colliding with Earth with potentially catastrophic consequences.

An alarming asteroid

• When Apophis was discovered in 2004, scientists thought there was a 2.7% chance of a collision with Earth — the highest probability of any large asteroid hitting Earth in the recent past.
• Initial observations showed that if not in 2029, Apophis could hit Earth in 2036 or 2068.
• Given the asteroid’s size — it measures about 450 m at its widest - a collision with Earth could cause large-scale damage.
• Subsequent observations showed these initial fears to have been unfounded — the Earth did not face any risk from Apophis in 2029, 2036, or 2068.
• The asteroid will come the closest to Earth in 2029, when it flies by at a distance of 32,000 km.
• This is close enough to be visible to the naked eye, and at a distance at which some communication satellites operate.

From sci-fi to reality

• In 2022, NASA demonstrated technology that has long been a science fiction staple.
• A spacecraft launched in the previous year crashed into an asteroid named Dimorphos, and changed both its shape and its trajectory.
• Dimorphos did not pose a threat to Earth, and was circling the Sun some 11 million km away from our planet.
• But this showed the beginning of a planetary defence programme. Asteroids are yet to be studied in detail, and very few missions have been dedicated to them.