Does Apophis Asteroid Flyby Have Any Risk to Us?

 The asteroid Apophis poses zero risk of impacting Earth during its upcoming close flybys for at least the next 100 years. Although early calculations following its discovery in 2004 indicated a small chance of impact, precision radar observations taken in March 2021 definitively ruled out any collision in 2029, 2036, and 2068.

• The 2029 Close Approach: On Friday, April 13, 2029, at about 21:46 UTC, Apophis will pass within 30,600 kilometers (19,000 miles) of Earth's surface. That is lower than the Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) Satellites which are at around 36,000 km. This is exceptionally close for an asteroid of its size (roughly 375 meters across), and it will be visible to the naked eye as a fast-moving, bright star from parts of Europe, Africa, and western Asia. 
• Its maximum angular diameter will be only ~2 arcseconds. The ISS, when high overhead, spans ~50 arcseconds, so Apophis appears about 25 times smaller in angular size. Both look star-like to the naked eye; Apophis will be a magnitude-3 moving point of light. From southern India the flyby is well placed and naked-eye visible for several hours that night.
• Satellite Safety: While Apophis will dip closer to Earth than our geostationary communications satellites, it will not hit them. Its trajectory is heavily inclined away from the equator, carrying it safely through clear space rather than the equatorial belt occupied by orbital infrastructure.
  
  
• Orbital Shift: The intense gravitational pull of Earth during this encounter will physically widen the asteroid's orbit around the Sun. This flyby will shift Apophis out of the "Aten" family of asteroids (which have orbits smaller than Earth's) and into the "Apollo" family (which have wider orbits).
  
  
• Upcoming Spacecraft Missions: Rather than a planetary defense emergency, the flyby is being treated as a premier scientific event. NASA's OSIRIS-APEX spacecraft is scheduled to rendezvous with Apophis shortly after the flyby, while the European Space Agency's Ramses mission plans to arrive beforehand to study exactly how Earth's tidal forces warp and stress the asteroid's surface.