Bennu Asteroid Might Closely Approach Earth in the 2100s
Known as one of the two most hazardous asteroids in our solar system.
An asteroid the size of the Empire State Building “will make a close approach with Earth” in 2135, as per NASA‘s report. As terrifying as that sounds, the good news is that it won’t pose a danger to our planet.
Dubbed Bennu, the asteroid’s impact through the year 2300 has been calculated using NASA’s Deep Space Network and state-of-the-art computer models, which is about one in 1,750 (or 0.057 percent). Researchers at NASA have also found that the potential impact of Bennu will be on September 24, 2182 “with an impact probability of one in 2,700 (or about 0.037 percent).”
For the past two years, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has been monitoring Bennu. Despite how low the chances are of the asteroid flying into Earth, it is still “one of the two most hazardous known asteroids in our solar system, along with another asteroid called 1950 DA.” If it were to impact Earth, it could create a massive crater over 100 times its actual size of 10 kilometers.
Head over to NASA to read more about its findings or watch the visual above.
In other space-related news, have you heard about the annual Perseid meteor shower?
