Asteroid that passes nearby could hit Earth in the future, NASA says

An asteroid NASA’s been monitoring for almost 25 years could have an effect on Earth in the long run, a brand new file finds.

First found out in 1999, Bennu, the near-Earth asteroid, could most likely glide into the planet’s orbit and could hit the planet by means of September 2182, in keeping with the OSIRIS-REx science workforce.

Bennu passes close to Earth each and every six years and has had 3 shut encounters with Earth in 1999, 2005, and 2011, professionals mentioned in the ScienceDirect study.

There is a 1 in 2,700, or 0.037% probability that Bennu could hit Earth by means of 2182, scientists mentioned.

In October 2020, the OSIRIS-REx — an acronym for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security-Regolith Explorer — in brief touched the floor of Bennu, accrued a pattern after which propelled off the asteroid.

The first asteroid pattern accrued in area from OSIRIS-REx lands on Earth on Sunday — crashing down in Utah.

Astrophysicist Hakeem Oluyesi advised ABC News that OSIRIS-REx will alternate what folks learn about the origins of our sun gadget.

“This is pure untainted material revealing early solar system secrets. A longshot discovery would be finding biological molecules or even precursor molecules for life.”

It used to be the first challenge of its sort for NASA.

If Bennu would hit Earth, it could free up 1,200 megatons of power, which is 24 occasions the power of the maximum artifical nuclear weapon, in keeping with IFLScience.

The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs used to be as robust as 10 billion atomic bombs, scientists printed in 2019. Experts discovered proof in huge chunks of rocks that the asteroid used to be sturdy sufficient to cause wildfires, tsunamis and blast such a lot mud into the surroundings that it blocked out the solar.

ABC News’ Catherine Thorbecke and Gina Sunseri contributed to this file.