Bennu Asteroid: There is 1 in 2,700 Chance Space Rock Could Hit Earth by the Year 2182

An asteroid from the far reaches of space could hit Earth 159 years from now, according to a recent report. NASA's OSIRIS-Rex science team said that the space rock, named Bennu or 101955 Bennu, could potentially pulled into our planet's orbit and hit us by September 2182. While the asteroid has passed the Blue Planet several times in the past, its future trip to our planet by the late 22^nd century may result in a direct asteroid strike.

The long-term asteroid projection comes before the OSIRIS-Rex mission in late September 2023 returned to Earth carrying samples from the asteroid Bennu after spending seven years in deep space. The mission's spacecraft departed Earth in 2016 and reached the celestial object in October 2020.

The unmanned NASA spacecraft collected rocks and dust from the surface of the Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA). The US space agency said the samples from Bennu may provide scientists clues about the ancient formation of our Sun and solar system's planets around 4.5 billion years ago.

Will the Asteroid Bennu Hit Earth?

NASA scientists said that there is a '1 in 2,700 or 0.037% chance' of Bennu making a direct impact to Earth by the year 2182, after observing the space rock for almost 25 years since its first discovery in 1999. While the project still has no absolute certainty, the trajectory of the said asteroid strike could still change in the coming decades and century, similar to previous asteroids initially thought to hit Earth, including the giant asteroid Apophis.

While no concrete plans have been made yet against the 101955 Bennu asteroid, deflection through kinetic impact energy could be one of the options following NASA's successful planetary defense mission, called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), last year.

In the case of Bennu, NASA says the space rock has a width of only one-third of a mile or a half a kilometer at its equator, describing it as "minuscule" compared with other planets. The space agency specified that Bennu is only slightly wider than the height of the Empire State Building in New York. Regardless, the potential impact of the asteroid could still be devastating in a local or regional level should it hit Earth.

Future Asteroid Strike

Aside from Bennu, NASA has another asteroid on its radar that could hit Earth in the coming decades. In March 2023, the agency announced a potential direct strike from a space rock, named Asteroid 2023 DW, in February 2046, a projected covered by Nature World News earlier this year. The approaching rock has a reported width of a football field with a '1 in 560 or 0.17% chance' of impacting our planet.

Although asteroid strikes, at least the small ones, are common occurrences on Earth, NASA and other space agencies, and observatories worldwide are focusing more on large space rocks that have the potential to hit or flyby Earth.