Previously considered the most hazardous of all known asteroids, any chance that 99942 Apophis will impact Earth in the next 100 years has since been ruled out.

But its flyby of Earth in April 2029 will be one of the rarest space events of our lives.

10 facts 🧵👇 1. Apophis will miss Earth

Apophis will miss Earth when it flies past our planet on 13 April 2029. If you only remember one of these facts, make sure it’s this one.

🛰️@ESA_Euclid - our cosmic detective to uncover the #darkUniverse⚫️- has our engineers and scientists also donning their Sherlock Holmes hats, coats and pipes, as they work on three (non-critical) issues that have arisen during the mission's commissioning❓🧵👇📰👉
#ESAEuclid commissioning – when instruments/subsystems are deployed, turned on, tested and calibrated – began well. Teams here at #MissionControl worked 24 hrs a day in 12-hour shifts through intense weeks of manoeuvres, tests and calibrations.

We flew the mission out to #Lagrange point 2, its telescope mirrors were de-iced, its NISP and VIS instruments were woken up and saw ‘first light’ and its telescope mirror was focussed. Euclid’s first test images were mesmerising.

A <1m object has struck🌍in the skies above Niagara Falls, becoming a safe #fireball. For just the 6th time, global #asteroid warning systems saw it pre impact, alerting #PlanetaryDefence experts where & when. 'Only' 6x, but this capability is rapidly improving

#AsteroidImpact☄️

https://twitter.com/Richard_M_F/status/1593869065923313664

Observations are already coming in.

https://twitter.com/ScottWx_TWN/status/1593902382693261312

There are some false reports doing the rounds of a very large asteroid, 2022 AP7, "certain" to strike Earth.

2022 AP7's orbit is well known 100 years into the future and it will not strike Earth or even make a close approach (atleast for a century.)

#AsteroidImpactDebunked☄️❌ This doesn't mean it will strike in 101 years! Only that our #PlanetaryDefence experts calculate asteroid orbits for the next hundred years. Any asteroid with even a tiny chance of impact is added to ESA's #AsteroidRiskList, and becomes the focus of intense observations

After 6 years in orbit, we say goodbye to @CopernicusEU #Sentinel1B and thank you to teams here at ESA’s #MissionControl, who for months have worked tirelessly to troubleshoot the issue that has now resulted in end of mission 👉esa.int/Applications/O… As the first mission of the @CopernicusEU Programme, Sentinel-1 comprises two satellites orbiting 180 degrees apart, providing all-weather, day-and-night imagery of Earth’s surface, designed, built, launched and flown by @ESA.

On Monday, for the first time, we performed a set of manoeuvres to avoid a high-risk collision w. #SpaceDebris created in the #Cosmos1408 anti-satellite test last year.

This was a difficult #CollisionAvoidance manoeuvre.👏👏to our #Sentinel1A Control Team & Space Debris Office #CollisionAvoidance monitoring is unfortunately routine work at #MissionControl, and our teams are well-practiced in reacting to high-risk events.

This near head-on #collision was however unique; the situation evolved rapidly, was tricky to avoid, AND we had <24 hrs warning

A flawless, radiant, #Mercuryflyby

After a flawless flyby of Mercury, @BepiColombo is starting to feel the heat. At 01:34:41 CEST this morning, BepiColombo passed just 199 kilometres from the hot, rocky, innermost planet – the outcome of months of work to get the spacecraft into a precise trajectory for the first rendezvous with its target planet.

#MercuryFlyby

Solar cycle 25: the Sun wakes up🌤️

Experts on the Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel recently announced the Sun has officially entered a new cycle, its 25th since we’ve had enough data to reliably recognise them.

👉 esa.int/Safety_Securit…

ESA/NASA SOHO, 2012 - Brendan Gallagher While we can expect #spaceweather to get more exciting in the next few years, with peak sunspot activity expected in 2025, the panel came to the consensus that this next cycle will be very similar to the previous – both generally weaker than the average solar cycle.

©️NOAA

ESA's #missioncontrol centre is preparing for the launch of #Sentinel6 on 10 Nov.

In particular, teams are rehearsing the 'Launch and Early Orbit Phase' – the riskiest period in the fledgling spacecraft's life

Find out more🛰️👉esa.int/Enabling_Suppo… Like a bird hatching from the egg, this is the period in which a new spacecraft unfurls its solar arrays, wakes up to test its core functioning and manoeuvres into the correct path, all the while at its most vulnerable to the hazards of space.

#Sentinel6

2️⃣ days til #AsteroidDay!

The second most likely asteroid to strike Earth is 2018 VP1. A tiny little thing, it is estimated to be just 2.4 m in diameter and has a (relatively) high chance of striking Earth in November this year of 1 in 193

#SpaceCare💙
#PlanetaryDefence🌍 Even though 2018 VP1 seems very small, meteorites still regularly reach Earth's surface - it all depends on the composition of the asteroid.

ESA & @mfnberlin are currently studying the physical processes as an asteroid enters Earth's atmosphere with velocities above 11 km/s

To date, more than 5800 launches have resulted in over 44,000 tracked objects in orbit, of which more than 20,000 remain in space and are regularly tracked by surveillance networks around the globe
#SpaceDebris🛰️ ~26% of catalogued objects are satellites, and only a small fraction of those - about 2000 - are still operating today
~17% of tracked objects are used upper stages of rockets and mission-related objects like launch adapters and lens covers
A drifting thermal blanket,📸1998

For the first time ever, ESA has performed a 'collision avoidance manoeuvre' to protect one of its satellites from colliding with a 'mega constellation'
#SpaceTraffic @esa This morning, @ESA's #Aeolus Earth observation satellite fired its thrusters, moving it off a collision course with a @SpaceX satellite in their #Starlink constellation

The surprise close approach of asteroid '2019 OK' illustrates need for more eyes on the sky☄️🔭
Find out more: esa.int/Our_Activities…
#PlanetaryDefence🌍 Two key goals of ESA’s #PlanetaryDefence activities are, by 2030, Europe will be able to

Whats your favourite method to prevent an #AsteroidImpact?
(More info on techniques below. HINT: one is pretty dangerous and another is #sciencefiction)
#PlanetaryDefense🌍☄️ 1. The planned #AIDA mission will be the first to test asteroid deflection. @NASA's #DART spacecraft will be crashed into asteroid #Didymoon, and ESA's #HeraMission will observe the effects. Find out more: esa.int/Our_Activities…