Current Affair 1:

News:

A gigantic near-earth asteroid is set to pass by on April 13, 2029, and again in 2036.

Named Apophis, this asteroid is known to be the most 'hazardous' at the moment, with a diameter of 370 meters.

Planetary Defense                                                     

It refers to efforts and strategies aimed at protecting Earth from potential impacts by NEOs such as asteroids and comets. It involves multiple strategies including detection, tracking, impact assessment, deflection, etc.

Need of Planetary Defense:

If NEOs path intersects with that of Earth’s orbit, then depending on their size, speed, angle and impact region, could threaten billions of lives on impact and in the ensuing tsunamis, earthquakes and fires.

Global Planetary Defense Efforts

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART): First-ever mission dedicated to investigate and demonstrate one method of asteroid deflection by changing an asteroid’s motion in space through kinetic impact. Its targets were Asteroid Didymos and its moonlet Dimorphos.

OSIRIS-APophis EXplorer (OSIRIS-APEX):

After successfully completing its mission to gather a sample of asteroid Bennu, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer) was sent to study Apophis and renamed OSIRIS-APEX.

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