CNN Indonesia
Tuesday, 26 Sep 2023 15:14 IWST
Illustration. NASA predicts the possibility of the asteroid Bennu hitting Earth with the force of 24 nuclear bombs. (iStockphoto/dzika_mrowka)
Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
United States Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) predicts the probability asteroid Bennu hit Earth in 2182 with the force of 24 nuclear bombs.
NASA is currently carrying out close monitoring of the asteroid Bennu, which measures 490 meters in diameter. The reason is, this asteroid has the possibility of hitting Earth on September 24, 2182.
However, according to a 2021 study, the probability of such a collision is quite small, around 1 in 2,700.
However, if Bennu hits Earth, this asteroid will hit the surface at a speed of about 11 kilometers per second. According to NASA calculations, Bennu could release 1,400 megatons of energy, which is at least 24 times more powerful than the Tsar Bomba nuclear weapon.
For comparison, the “Fat Man” bomb that the US dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, near the end of World War II was a 21 kiloton bomb. Quoted from Smithsonianthe Soviet Union tested the “Tsar Bomba”, the most powerful nuclear weapon ever used with a power of 50 megatons.
Furthermore, NASA was interested in the asteroid Bennu and launched a seven-year mission to study it. This mission has finally brought valuable samples from this asteroid back to Earth.
Quoted from Business Insiderthis mission could help better predict the future of our cosmic neighbors, and could also provide unprecedented insight into the formation of the Earth.
The OSIRIS-REx mission landed on Bennu to take samples in October 2020, and discovered an unexpected rock surface.
The reason is, Bennu’s surface is shrinking almost like water, and the mass of gravel in the crater where OSIRIS-REx landed, which is named Nightingale, almost swallowed the spacecraft.
This showed scientists that the surface layer of the asteroid has a very low density. This probe even sank as deep as 50 centimeters into Bennu’s surface before the reverse thruster was fired.
Scientists are currently comparing measurements from Bennu with data collected during NASA’s asteroid deflection experiment, DART, which successfully changed the orbit of the asteroid moon Dimorphos around its parent space rock, Didymos, in September 2022.
“When I looked at photos of Dimorphos, it looked very familiar; it looked like a pile of rocky debris with the same texture,” said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator from the University of Arizona, quoted from Space.
“Mission [DART] phenomenally successful. “This mission imparts a lot of momentum to the asteroid, substantially slowing its orbital speed, and in large part because there is so much material ejected from the surface, and that transfer of energy results in a significant change in its orbital period,” he continued.
(lom/dmi)
2023-09-26 08:14:01
#NASA #Predicts #Asteroid #Hit #Earth #Force #Nuclear #Bombs
