There is a 1 in 2,700 chance that the Bennu asteroid will hit Earth by 2182.
A new report reveals that an asteroid that NASA has been tracking for nearly 25 years could impact Earth in the future.
The near-Earth asteroid Bennu, first discovered in 1999, has drifted into the planet’s orbit and could collide with it by September 2182, according to the OSIRIS-REx science team.
Bennu passes close to Earth every six years and has come close to Earth three times, in 1999, 2005 and 2011, experts told ScienceDirect. study.
Scientists say there is a 1 in 2,700, or 0.037%, chance that Bennu will hit Earth by 2182.
In October 2020, OSIRIS-REx (an acronym for Origin, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security Regolith Explorer) briefly touched Bennu’s surface and collected samples before being propelled out of the asteroid.
The first asteroid sample taken in space from Osiris-Rex landed on Earth on Sunday, crashing in Utah.
Astrophysicist Hakeem Oluyesi told ABC News that OSIRIS-REx will change what people know about the origin of the solar system.
“This is pure, uncontaminated material that will reveal the secrets of the early solar system. A likely discovery will be the discovery of biomolecules, or even precursor molecules for life.”
This was the first mission of its kind for NASA.
If Bennu were to hit Earth, it would release 1,200 megatons of energy, 24 times the energy of the largest man-made nuclear weapon, according to IFL Science.
Scientists revealed in 2019 that the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs was as powerful as 10 billion atomic bombs. Experts have found evidence in a huge chunk of rock that the asteroid was powerful enough to cause wildfires, tsunamis, and blow tons of dust into the atmosphere. outside the sun.
ABC News’ Katherine Sobecke and Gina Sunseri contributed to this report.