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NASA has recalculated the probability of asteroid Bennu hitting Earth

NASA has recalculated the probability of asteroid Bennu hitting Earth


Asteroid Bennu. | Photo: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

At a press conference on Wednesday, NASA scientists revealed that there is a 1 in 1,750 chance that an asteroid called Bennu, the size of the Empire State Building in New York, will hit Earth before 2300, the New York Times reported.

for RT

The calculation suggests a slightly more potential risk compared to the previous estimate of 1 in 2,700 over a shorter period, between now and 2,200. David Farnocchia, a Propulsion Laboratory scientist, said. NASA Jet (California, USA). “I’m no longer worried about Beno any more than before. The specialist insisted that the probability of the impact was still very small.

In any case, Bennu’s trajectory is known with sufficient accuracy to prove that the chances of a collision will be zero for the next century. However, this celestial body is approaching the orbit of our planet and in the year 2135 it will come close to a distance equal to half the path between the Earth and the Moon. The most worrying day will be September 24, 2182, but there will be a probability of only 0.037%.

Bennu’s width is about half a kilometer. A collision with such an object would not be powerful enough to cause a general extinction of life on this planet, but it could cause great destruction. “As a general rule, you can say that the crater will be 10 to 20 times the size of the object,” said Lindley Johnson, NASA’s planetary defense officer. “Any object the size of half a kilometer will create a crater with a diameter of at least 5, and perhaps as much as 10 kilometers in diameter. But the affected area […] It will be extensive, up to 100 times the size of the hole,” he noted.

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