NASA just has updated Her predictions about the possibility of an asteroid Bennu colliding with Earth, she even specified the exact date when the collision would be most likely: September 24, 2182.

Spoiler alert: We’re probably okay.

the background: Our solar system contains over a million Asteroids, most of which are very small and unlikely to come close to Earth.

If it’s a big asteroid she was However, a collision with Earth’s surface could be devastating, so NASA created the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) in 2016 to detect and monitor any potentially dangerous asteroids and develop a plan. blocking effects, if possible.

Currently, PDCO is closely monitoring two particularly threatened space rocks, one of them define.

NS asteroid benno: NASA discovered the asteroid Bennu in 1999. It is currently about 200 million miles away from us, but is expected to reach 125,000 miles in the year 2135 – about half the distance between Earth and the Moon.

“The size of a Bennu object… would destroy things along the coast quite a lot.”

Lindley Johnson

Bennu is about a third of a mile (half a kilometer) wide, and if it is made of Earth, can cause serious damage.

“[A] An object half a kilometer in size will create a crater with a diameter of at least five kilometers, which can be up to 10 kilometers in diameter,” PDCO Director, Lindley Johnson He told the New York Times,.

He continued, “But the area of ​​destruction will be much larger than that and will reach 100 times the size of the crater.” “So the effect of Bennu’s body size on the East Coast nations would practically destroy things along the coast.”

Osiris Rex Mission: To find out as much as possible about the asteroid Bennu, NASA launched the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in 2016.

The craft spent two years closely studying Bennu, recording data from its orbit to landing on the asteroid to collect rock samples — a first for NASA.

These samples won’t be in NASA’s hands until 2023 (OSIRIS-REx is still making the flight home), but NASA has already used what it learned from the spacecraft to update its predictions about asteroid Bennu.

Study leader David Farnocchia said in a report press release.

“We’ve never modeled the trajectory of an asteroid so accurately before,” he added.

what’s new: According to NASA, the chance of asteroid Bennu hitting Earth between now and 2300 is about 1 in 1750. This is a slight change from the previous prediction (one chance in every 2,700 collisions between now and 2200).

“I’m no more worried about Beno than I used to be.”

David Farnocchia

NASA has also set the most likely date for a collision with Bennu – September 24, 2182 – but so far, the odds are only 1 in 2700.

Conclusion, according to Farnocchia?

“It’s not a significant change,” he told the New York Times. “I am not more worried about Bennu than I used to be. The potential for impact is still very low.”

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