Asteroid 99942 Apophis, nicknamed the God of Chaos, has caught the whole world’s attention due to its threatening flyby, which is set to occur on April 13th, 2029 again in 2036. The ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) chief, Dr. S. Somanath, spoke about this threat in a recent.
“A large asteroid strike is a real existential threat to humanity.” “After all, we have only one Earth to live on. India will cooperate with all nations to ward off this and other such future threats,” told Dr. S. Somanath to News18 as per the report.
He also said that ISRO is closely monitoring asteroid Apophis with the help of ISRO’s Network for Space Objects Tracking and Analysis (NETRA), which is set up within the ISTRAC campus at Peenya, Bangalore. It was formally inaugurated by Dr. K. Sivan, Chairman of ISRo back then, on 14 December 2020. The NETRA system aims to carry out SSA Space Situational Awareness activities by monitoring space debris, space weather, near-earth objects, and other planetary defence studies.
Studying asteroid Apophis is very crucial for humanity at this point, as a slight change in its trajectory can lead to the extinction of all the species on Earth. In such cases, global coordination and coordination of space agencies to develop an efficient planetary defence system plays a crucial role.
