TRIBUNNEWS.COM – NASA scientists predict that the large asteroid they are tracking will hit Earth in 2182 or 159 years from now.
The asteroid has the potential to destroy an area the size of Texas, quoted from NY Post.
“The impact of the asteroid, which is about 2.1 kilometers wide, could damage much of the Earth’s surface and release the energy of about 22 atomic bombs,” according to Earth.com.
The explosion is only a small part of the impact of a giant asteroid.
It is believed that damage arising from a giant asteroid impact wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, which is estimated to be about 9.6 kilometers wide.
Quoted from Channel 103, a near-Earth object, named Bennu, orbits Earth approximately every six years.
When it was first discovered, Bennu had been on the space agency’s radar since 1999,
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NASA scientists have predicted the possibility that a large asteroid they are tracking will hit Earth in 2182, potentially destroying an area the size of Texas. Bennu, a near-Earth object, orbits Earth approximately every six years. (NASA/Goddard/Arizona Union/SWNS)
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On September 25, 2135, Bennu is predicted to make a short flight past Earth.
A paper from the OSIRIS-REx science team says Bennu has only a 1 in 2,700 — or 0.037 percent — chance of hitting Earth on September 24, 2182.
OSIRIS-REx — which stands for Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer — landed a plane on Bennu and collected around 1 kilogram of rock and soil samples in 2020.
The first asteroid samples collected are expected to land in Utah on Sunday, according to ABC News.
Astrophysicist Hakeem Oluyesi told the outlet that the completion of the seven-year mission will change people’s knowledge of the origins of our solar system.
“This is pure, untainted material that reveals the secrets of the early solar system,” he explained.
“Long-term discovery is finding biological molecules or even precursor molecules of life,” Oluyesi said.
(Tribunnews.com/Andari Wulan Nugrahani)
2023-09-23 00:23:06
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