TIMESINDONESIA, JAKARTA – The story about the asteroid Bennu is still ongoing, and the possibility of this asteroid hitting Earth exists, even though the ratio is 1: 2700, where the power could reach 24 times a nuclear bomb.
The United States Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, as reported by CNN, predicts that an asteroid with a diameter of 490 meters could hit Earth on September 24, 2182.
Therefore, currently, the United States Aeronautics and Space Agency continues to closely monitor the asteroid Bennu.
However, according to a study in 2021, the possibility of a collision between the asteroid Bennu and Earth is small, the ratio is 1:2700.
It is known that Bennu is more than just a cold, jet-black rock hurtling through space near us, which is thought to have formed 4.6 billion years ago, so it is almost the same age as the Solar System itself.
It most likely broke off from a much larger asteroid around 700 million to two billion years ago.
Scientists, as reported by the BBC, believe the asteroid Bennu may be home to organic molecules similar to the molecules that helped seed life on Earth.
Additionally, there are also more future-focused reasons why scientists want to learn more about this asteroid.
It is estimated that the asteroid object has a one in 2,700 chance of colliding with Earth by the end of the 22nd century.
The asteroid Bennu passes near Earth once every six years.
Knowing more about its composition could allow future generations to better understand how to stop it if the asteroid Bennu were on a collision course with planet Earth.
After two years in orbit analyzing the asteroid’s surface, the Osiris-Rex space probe landed on Bennu on October 20 2020 at a distance of only 0.9 m (3 feet) from the target location chosen by its operator on Earth.
The spacecraft’s robotic arm then managed to penetrate the asteroid’s surface, which was surprisingly easy to do and sprayed nitrogen gas to send up a cloud of material. Some of them were then collected into a Sample Return Capsule in the shape of a gamelan kenong
Osiris-Rex’s four-year journey to the surface of Bennu ended with only about six seconds of contact.
Osiris-Rex activated its thrusters and returned to space, it then returned to Earth sending its Sample Return Capsule, and immediately shot off again to explore further regions of the Solar System.
The journey home would take two and a half years.
However, if Bennu actually hits Earth, this asteroid will hit the Earth’s surface at a speed of around 11 kilometers/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 the Smithsonian, the Soviet Union tested the “Tsar Bomba”, the most powerful nuclear weapon ever used with a power of 50 megatons.
That’s why NASA is interested in the asteroid Bennu, so it launched a seven-year mission to study it. This mission has finally brought valuable samples from this asteroid back to Earth.
Quoted from Business Insider, this 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 spacecraft mission landed on Bennu to collect samples in October 2020, and then succeeded in scooping up an unexpected rock surface.
Because, Bennu’s surface shrank almost like water, and the mass of gravel in the crater where OSIRIS-REx landed, which was named Nightingale, almost swallowed the spacecraft.
This became evidence for 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 OSIRIS-REx principal researcher from the University of Arizona, Dante Lauretta, quoted by Space.
“The (DART) mission was phenomenally successful. It imparted a lot of momentum to the asteroid, substantially slowing its orbital speed, and in large part because there was so much material ejected from the surface, and that transfer of energy resulted in a significant change in its orbital period,” said Dante Lauretta.
The story about the asteroid Bennu is also the same, there is even a possibility that this asteroid could also hit Earth, even though the ratio is 1:2700, where the power could reach 24 times a nuclear bomb.
Reporter
: Widodo Irianto
Editor: Ferry Agusta Satrio
2023-09-28 08:16:00
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