{"id":41416,"date":"2024-07-04T08:44:31","date_gmt":"2024-07-04T03:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=41416"},"modified":"2025-10-07T12:39:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T07:09:07","slug":"planetary-protection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/planetary-protection\/","title":{"rendered":"Developing Planetary Protection Systems Against Asteroids"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why in News?<\/li>\n<li>What is Asteroid Impact Avoidance?<\/li>\n<li>India\u2019s Journey in Planetary Defence<\/li>\n<li>India\u2019s Future in Planetary Defence<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why in News?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Speaking to mark the Asteroid Day 2024 (June 30), <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/isro\/\" target=\"_blank\">ISRO<\/a> Chairman emphasised the necessity of international collaboration in developing planetary protection systems against asteroids.<\/li>\n<li>He also highlighted India&#8217;s ambition and qualifications to join global missions focused on asteroid research and defence prior to the Apophis asteroid and Earth having a close encounter on April 13, 2029.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What is Asteroid Impact Avoidance?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>It encompasses the methods<\/strong> by which near-Earth objects (NEO) on a potential collision course with Earth could be diverted away, preventing destructive impact events.<\/li>\n<li>An impact by a sufficiently large asteroid or other NEOs <strong>would cause massive tsunamis or multiple firestorms<\/strong>, depending on its impact location.<\/li>\n<li>A collision 66 million years ago between the Earth and an object approximately 10 km\/ 6 miles wide is thought to have\n<ul>\n<li>Produced the<strong> Chicxulub crater<\/strong> (buried underneath the Yucat\u00e1n Peninsula in Mexico), and<\/li>\n<li>Triggered the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event that is believed to have caused the <strong>extinction of all non-avian dinosaurs<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>While the chances of a major collision are low in the near term, <strong>it is a near-certainty that one will happen eventually unless defensive measures are taken.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>In 2022<\/strong>, NASA spacecraft <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/what-is-the-dart-mission\/\" target=\"_blank\">Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART)<\/a>impacted Dimorphous, reducing the minor-planet moon&#8217;s orbital period by 32 minutes.\n<ul>\n<li>This mission constitutes the first successful attempt at asteroid deflection.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>In 2025<\/strong>, China\u2019s CNSA plans to launch another deflection mission to near-Earth object 2019 VL5, a 30-metre-wide (100 ft.) asteroid.\n<ul>\n<li>This will include both an impactor and observer spacecraft.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>India\u2019s Journey in Planetary Defence:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Observing Apophis:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>In 2004<\/strong>, Indian observatories were able to see an object that was 340 metres in size.<\/li>\n<li>They came to the conclusion that there is a substantial risk that this asteroid will reach and impact Earth.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The object is known as Apophis<\/strong>, and its sphere is 360 days (almost one Earth year), and it can often be seen in the vicinity of Earth.<\/li>\n<li><strong>On April 13, 2029<\/strong>, it will come to a distance of around 32,000 km away from Earth and there is a fear that if there is any change in gravity, it will have an impact on Earth in 2036.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>ISRO\u2019s plans for Apophis:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>ISRO is looking to study the asteroid in 2029 in order to prepare for planetary defence efforts to prevent the asteroid from crashing onto Earth.<\/li>\n<li>For this, ISRO could be collaborating with the <strong>Apophis asteroid mission<\/strong> &#8211; a joint mission of JAXA, ESA and NASA.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>India\u2019s Future in Planetary Defence:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Opportunities:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>While asteroids pose potential threats to Earth, <strong>they also offer significant opportunities for scientific discovery<\/strong>, potentially revealing insights into the universe&#8217;s formation and the origins of life on earth.<\/li>\n<li>As a major spacefaring nation with the capability to carry out complex missions of taking a spacecraft from one place to another, India will be in a position to\n<ul>\n<li>Handle an asteroid mission,<\/li>\n<li>Land on an asteroid, and<\/li>\n<li>Possibly carry out a planetary defence action to protect Earth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>India should start by collaborating<\/strong> with other nations that have already started work in this area.<strong> For example,<\/strong> Japan\u2019s JAXA has gone to an asteroid and collected samples.<\/li>\n<li>ISRO should also be a part of the <strong>worldwide planetary defence programme<\/strong> in collaboration with other agencies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Funding challenges: <\/strong>With ISRO heavily invested in the human space mission to launch an astronaut into space, the space agency is believed to be lacking funds for new projects like asteroid missions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Learning from NASA\u2019s DART mission: <\/strong>The DART mission shows the possibilities of imparting a change of trajectory to an asteroid and causing it to depart from its course.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q.1. Why is World Asteroid Day celebrated?<\/h3>\n<p>The World Asteroid Day is celebrated on June 30th every year to spread awareness among the public about the potential danger posed by asteroids or &#8216;near earth objects&#8217;.<\/p>\n<h3>Q.2. What is the mission of NASA Apophis?<\/h3>\n<p>OSIRIS-APEX is a mission to study the physical changes to asteroid Apophis that will result from its rare close encounter with Earth in April 2029.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/economictimes.indiatimes.com\/news\/science\/isro-seeks-active-role-in-global-efforts-to-shield-earth-from-asteroids\/printarticle\/111467351.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ISRO seeks active role in global efforts to shield earth from asteroids<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/cities\/bangalore\/isro-global-planetary-defence-efforts-earth-2029-close-encounter-asteroid-apophis-9431170\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISRO Chairman emphasised the necessity of international collaboration in developing planetary protection systems against asteroids<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":41417,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-41416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}