Asteroid Apophis 2029 Earth Flyby – Animations

  • Released Wednesday, September 23, 2026
View full credits

OSIRIS-APEX will rendezvous with asteroid Apophis in mid-2029, following its historically close flyby with Earth.

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. That year, Apophis’ orbit will bring it within 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers) of Earth’s surface – closer to Earth than our highest-altitude satellites. Our planet’s gravitational pull is expected to alter the asteroid’s orbit, change how fast it spins on its axis, and possibly cause quakes or landslides that will alter its surface.

The OSIRIS-APEX spacecraft will observe these changes as it passes by Earth within an hour of Apophis, on track for a rendezvous with the asteroid in mid-2029. These artist’s concept animations illustrate Apophis’ historically close encounter with Earth and OSIRIS-APEX’s journey to the asteroid.

Top-down animation of asteroid Apophis and OSIRIS-APEX flying past Earth on April 13, 2029.

During the 2029 flyby, Apophis will pass about a tenth of the distance between the Earth and the Moon – closer than any asteroid of its size in recorded history. In this animation, the asteroids are to scale with each other but not to scale with the Earth and the Moon.

VERTICAL VERSION – Apophis size and distance comparison.

Apophis is an elongated asteroid with an average diameter slightly larger than the height of the Eiffel Tower. Its longest axis is about 450 meters, while its shortest axis measures only 170 meters.

VERTICAL VERSION – Apophis size comparison.

For More Information

See NASA.gov

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab

Missions

This page is related to the following missions:

This page was originally published on Wednesday, September 23, 2026.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, September 23, 2026 at 12:10 PM EDT.