Earth's gravity could tweak its future path and put it on a collision course with Earth in the 2200s - less likely now based on Osiris-Rex observations. 24, 2182.īennu will have a close encounter with Earth in 2135 when it passes within half the distance of the moon. Now it's 1-in-1,750 through the year 2300. An asteroid known as Bennu will pass within half the distance of the Earth to the Moon in the year 2135 but the probability of an impact with our planet in the coming centuries is very slight. Their findings - published in the journal Icarus - should also help in charting the course of other asteroids and give Earth a better fighting chance if and when another hazardous space rock heads our way.īefore Osiris-Rex arrived on the scene, scientists put the odds of Bennu hitting Earth through the year 2200 at 1-in-2,700. The spacecraft collected enough data over 2 1/2 years to help scientists better predict the asteroid’s orbital path well into the future. The samples are due here in 2023.īefore Osiris-Rex arrived at Bennu in 2018, telescopes provided solid insight into the asteroid, about one-third of a mile (one-half kilometer) in diameter. Estimates produced before OSIRIS-REx arrived at the space rock tallied the cumulative probability of a Bennu impact between the years 21 at 1 in 2,700, according to NASA. If the asteroid hit the East Coast of the U.S., i t “would pretty much devastate things up and down the coast,” Johnson added.The spacecraft is headed back to Earth on a long, roundabout loop after collecting samples from the large, spinning rubble pile of an asteroid, considered one of the two most hazardous known asteroids in our solar system. As a result, scientists behind new research now say theyre confident that the asteroids total impact probability through 2300 is just 1 in 1,750. Lindley Johnson, a planetary defense officer for NASA, predicted that if the Earth was struck by the asteroid, the amount of area destroyed would equal the asteroid’s size 100 fold, according to the AP. However, they said that based on the data from Osiris-Rex spacecraft, the chances of gravity interfering with its trajectory are slimmer now. Scientists said that the Earth’s gravity could affect Bennu’s orbit and create a collision with the planet in the next two centuries. Scientists say that Bennu will get within close proximity of the planet by 2135. “We shouldn’t be worried about it too much,” Farnocchia said, who was the lead author of the findings, which were published in the Icarus journal. The spacecraft is slated to arrive back to Earth in 2023. However, there is a 1 in 2700 or 0.037 percent chance that the near-Earth asteroid Bennu could hit our planet. And with that incredibly detailed view of the asteroid, experts studying potential space rock impacts with Earth have been able to fine-tune their existing models of Bennu's future. More than 160 years from now - 24 September, 2187, to be precise. Nasa scientists have zeroed in on a date when an asteroid could potentially impact Earth. Scientists previously said that the odds that Bennu would strike the Earth into 2200 was 1 in 2,700, but those figures were adjusted to 1 in 1,750 into the year 2300, The Associated Press reported.įarnocchia works with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and told reporters that the Osiris-Rex spacecraft, which landed on Bennu in 2018 to collect samples, has given them a better idea of the asteroid’s future orbital path, according to the wire service. Chances of asteroid ‘Bennu’ hitting Earth low. However, Davide Farnocchia stressed that Earthlings shouldn’t be too worried. Scientists have fine-tuned the path of the asteroid Bennu and say the odds of it smacking into Earth are higher than previously thought but still quite low. In fact, there's an 0.037 percent (or 1-in-2,700) chance that it will strike Earth in the last quarter of the 22nd century, NASA.
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A NASA scientist said Wednesday that the likelihood of the Bennu asteroid hitting Earth within the next century or two has increased. Bennu is officially classified as a potentially dangerous asteroid.