Jakarta – An asteroid that humans have visited may one day visit Earth. The asteroid is predicted to visit us on September 24, 2182.
When Bennu visits, the asteroid will hit Earth with the force of 22 atomic bombs. But are those predictions correct? And why does September 24, 2182 continue to be mentioned in predictions regarding this?
First of all, Bennu was largely chosen to be visited by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission because of the excellent radar data and telescope observations humans already have, thereby reducing the risk to the mission.
However, this asteroid is one of the asteroids most likely to hit Earth. By studying its composition and orbit, NASA hopes to gain a better understanding of the risks posed by the object.
Previous estimates indicate the possibility of Bennu hitting Earth between 2175 and 2199. Although its size is much smaller than the 9.7 kilometer long asteroid that destroyed the dinosaurs, the 500 meter Bennu would release 1,200 megatons of energy or the equivalent of 24 times the energy of a nuclear weapon. the most powerful human ever made if it hit Earth.
After two years of closely observing Bennu, NASA can better understand its future orbit, and screen out the possibility that it will one day collide with Earth.
“The OSIRIS-REx data give us much more precise information, so we can test the limits of our model and calculate Bennu’s future trajectory with a very high degree of certainty until 2135,” said study lead author Davide Farnocchia, from the Center for Object Studies Near Earth (CNEOS).
This article has appeared on detikInet, read in full here.
(mso/mso)
2023-09-20 07:00:09
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