The chances of an asteroid Bennu colliding with Earth are greater than expected

“We now have more accurate information about Bennu’s orbit,” Varnokia explained in the big news announced by NASA. “The numbers are twenty times more accurate than before. All kinds of factors were taken into account in the predictions, from the effects of microgravity to Einstein’s theory of relativity. We also calculated the distance from Earth to an accuracy of two metres, or the height of a basketball player.” A kilometer in diameter . The mission cost 1 billion euros. The probe was launched in 2016 and entered orbit around Bennu in 2018. The rocks were measured and photographed from all angles. This data was sent back to Earth for study.

If it collides, the Earth will not perish. It will create a crater up to ten kilometers in diameter and the destruction will reach a hundredfold.

But apart from the fact that asteroids are very unlikely to collide with our planet, there is a good chance that we will be able to avoid a collision in more than a hundred years. “Within a hundred years, we will have much better technologies at our disposal, should the need to change the asteroid’s path ever arise.”

By the way, Bennu is not the only danger to Earth in space. In the coming years, NASA wants to better define which parts of the solar system fly around and how likely they are to collide with Earth. About sixty percent of the near-Earth relatives are now known.